When I first saw Half Nelson I really didn't know what to make of it. I knew that I liked it, but it's such an odd premise - a teacher who's addicted to crack? The movie doesn't really have a plot per say...it just sort if...is. Dan Dunne, Ryan Gosling's character, is a drug addict middle school history teacher in a very low-income neighbourhood. All his students are poor and Black and/or Latino, yet are in much better shape than he. The movie is about Mr Dunne's friendship with Dre, a thirteen year old student to whom he attempts to be a mentor of sorts. Yet Dre is also friendly with the neighbourhood drug dealer, who does not offer her drugs but a job delivering them to his clients (including Mr Dunne). As a white male teacher from a middle class background, Mr Dunne is superficially "the man", representative of the authoritative forces that oppress minorities. Yet ironically it is he who suffers from what poverty breeds.
It sounds a little cheesy, I know, but you really should watch it. Ryan Gosling is truly an amazing actor - maybe even the best of our generation. And I L-O-V-E the Broken Social Scene soundtrack. You Forget it In People is one of my favourite albums of all time. Every time I watch Half Nelson I like it more. It's so subtle and elusive. In novels, these qualities can sometimes get on my nerves, but never in well done movies. Sometimes the general feeling a film produces is worth so much more than an engaging plot.
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