Half Nelson
Directed by Ryan Fleck
By Travis Mackenzie Hoover

You want to give Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden points for trying. As the respective writer-director and co-writer of Half Nelson, they’re clearly attempting to break away from the pack, combining Cassavetes’ immediacy to a cinema verite camera style. But though their camera jitters and their compositions are raw, there’s no denying a familiarity to their story, their characters and finally, to the very techniques with which they try to distinguish themselves.

Ryan Gosling stars as Dan, a middle-school teacher with a sullen demeanour and a crack habit, who between (bad) explanations of dialectics likes to smoke up in the bathroom. This is where student Drey (Shareeka Epps) finds him and they form an uneasy bond, in between encounters with drug dealer Frank (Anthony Mackie), who tries to suck Drey into the dealing life. Will Dan lead Drey out only to succumb himself?

Fleck and Boden’s stab at a melancholy remembrance of stale dreams is intensified by Dan’s attempt to fit his Hegelian square peg into the system’s round hole, but the film’s fight-the-fuddy-duddies and unlikely adult/child friendship bits are amongst the oldest saws in the Amer-indie tool chest. After a while, you start resenting the filmmakers for trying to fob off the standard operating bullshit as the latest style from Paris — even their documentary look is a diversionary tactic that serves no intellectual function other than to seem off-Hollywood.

And as it seizes on a racially-charged situation, it’s doubly tragic to watch it peter out into the same movie colony patronisation that marks most American filmic renderings of the problem. Half Nelson does keep you watching just in case something happens, but tragically, nothing does. (Th!nk)

The Illusionist - Dir. by Neil Burger
Playing a master of slight of hand, disappearances and other tricks of the 19th century illusionist’s trade, Edward Norton manages to distract us only briefly before we realise that there’s not much behind this tale of supernatural romance. ...Read More
Accepted - Dir. by Steve Pink
Accepted follows the long-running tradition of comedies that root for the underdog as he’s pitted against some unpleasant force that must be conquered and fed a piece of that tasty humble pie. ...Read More
A Sunday in Kigali - Dir. by Robert Favreau
All The King’s Men - Dir. by Steven Zaillian
Crank - Dir. by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor
Dreamland - Dir. by Jason Matzner
Employee of the Month - Dir. by Greg Coolidge
Flyboys - Dir. by Tony Bill
Hollywoodland - Dir. by Allen Coulter
Idlewild - Dir. by Bryan Barber
Invincible - Dir. by Ericson Core
Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles - Dir. by Zhang Yimou
Shadowboxer - Dir. by Lee Daniels
Shortbus - Dir. by John Cameron Mitchell
The Black Dahlia - Dir. by Brian De Palma
The House of Sand - Dir. by Andrucha Waddington
The Last King of Scotland - Dir. by Kevin MacDonald
The Quiet - Dir. by Jamie Babbit
The Science of Sleep - Dir. by Michel Gondry
The War Tapes - Dir. by Deborah Scranton
The War Tapes - Dir. by Deborah Scranton
The Wicker Man - Dir. by Neil LaBute
Trust the Man - Dir. by Bart Freundlich
Mary J. Blige - Stronger with Each Tear
Mary, we love the fact that you're happy ― no more drama ― and that your personal issues seem to be a thing of the past. Trouble is, your pain was what fuelled your passion. It's the reason why What's the 411 was a classic, and why subsequent albums were usually measured by whethe... Full Review
Toronto Punk Finds A Voice
If you've ever wondered why Toronto's first wave punk scene lacks the oral histories, band biographies, and memoirs pouring out of similar scenes, Treat Me Like Dirt is for you — as evidenced by a first printing selling out a week before its release. "I didn't know that any of this had happened the way I knew that New York and London had these great punk movements," says author Liz Worth.... Read More
The Hurt Locker Dir. by Kathryn Bigelow
Taking a break at about the halfway mark of director Kathryn Bigelow's Iraq war drama, The Hurt Locker, I realized my jaw was sore. I had been unconsciously clenching it from the first moment of The Hurt Locker, which chronicles a three-man team of explosives ordinance disposal (bomb s... Full Review
Social Networking
• Be our friend on MySpace
• Be our fan on Facebook
• Tweet us on twitter
Viewing the September 2006 Issue: • Contents Page • News • Click Hear • Articles --> On the Cover  •  Front Five  •  Points  •  Comics  •  Questionnaire  •  Research  •  Videogames • Music Reviews --> Recently Reviewed  •  Aggressive Tendencies  •  Beats & Rhymes  •  Frequencies  •  Groove  •  No Future  •  Pop Rocks  •  Wood, Wires & Whiskey  •  Concert Reviews  •  Hillside Festival Reviews • Motion Reviews --> Recently Reviewed  •  Dvd Reviews  •  Film Reviews  •  Music DVD Reviews  •  Videogame Reviews • Music School --> Label Life  •  Meet & Greet  •  Need to Know  •  What I Play • Contests • Contact --> About Us  • Advertising  • Distribution  • Getting Reviewed  • Getting Published  • Letters To The Editor  • Partnerships  • Subscriptions • Exclaim! Radio --> Aggressive Tendencies Radio  • Beats & Rhymes Radio  • Frequencies Radio  • Destination Out Radio  • Groove Radio  • No Future Radio  • Pop Rocks Radio  • Wood, Wires & Whiskey Radio • Exclaim! TV • Home & Latest Issue • Browse Issues