half nelson

Half Nelson (2006)

Premise: Dan Dunne (Ryan Gosling) is a popular history teacher at an inner-city middle school. He's also an addict. He keeps his two worlds separate until Drey (Shareeka Epps), one of his students, finds him in the girl's locker room with a crack pipe.

This indie is not part of the fantastical movie world where people can save each other. Redemption isn't easy, and it doesn't come quickly. There's always further to fall for Dan, a clever composite of the worst side of addiction and the best inspirational teacher model. Early in the movie he tells his students that history is about dialectics: opposing forces work against each other, resulting in change. This monologue informs that rest of the movie, yet it does so without coming across as a cheesy after school special. For Dan, it's the drugs and the students. Every time he's stoned he wonders, ceaselessly, how he can reach his students. When he finally hears about the impact he's had, he's too far gone to understand.

For Drey, it's Dan and Frank (Anthony Mackie), a local dealer whose work landed Drey's brother in jail. Drey can't save either one of these men, and both relationships have the potential to destroy her.

What a movie, people! So . . . economical. But in a good way. Relationships, characters, and plot points are established in seconds, not sprawling over unnecessary minutes. Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (who also directed) have a story to tell, and they are not screwing around. Time goes into smart camera work, perfect pacing, and clever plotting. Nothing too Hollywood happens, allowing the story to maintain a realistic, even documentary edge.

That edge is carried over to the performances, especially those of the two leads. It's easy to forget that Gosling and Epps are acting, given how raw they play it. Gosling is a rare firecracker whose lean good looks never hold him back from hitting the emotional underbelly in his characters, but it's Epps that will capture the audience's heart. Her toughness isn't put on; it's the product of hard earned everyday lessons that occur outside the classroom. When you see the vulnerability of her youth, despite her intelligence, it's heartbreaking.

One minor thing: I didn't always jive with Broken Social Scene's dissonance.

Otherwise, a dream of a movie. A

I've tried other cocoas, and this one's the best!

 

What? The Truman Show is hilarious.

 

The point being, of course, completely unrelated: If you reside in one of the areas affected by this test deal, please take advantage of it. Not because I think you should line the studio's pockets, but because if it's successful, it will become permanent. And if that happens, other chains would be forced to adapt. C'mon, people! Don't you want cheap Tuesdays back?

The 50 Best High School Movies

 

While I would have shuffled a few titles around, I concede that this list is one of the most insightful and sweetest I have ever read. Some of the titles are among my personal favourites. What can I say? There's never going to be a day in your life when you forget what it was like to get older in tiny, significant increments.

The Last Kiss (2006)

Idea: Twenty-nine year-old Michael's (Zach Braff) life feels pretty planned out: he works at a great architecture firm, he's still friends with all his pre-school friends, and he lives with his pregnant girlfriend (Jacinda Barrett) of three years. Naturally, he meets a cute co-ed (Rachel Bilson) and starts having doubts about where his life is going. Meanwhile, in sub-plot-landia, Chris (Casey Affleck) is considering leaving his wife (Lauren Lee Smith), although he doesn't want to leave his toddler behind; Izzy (Michael Weston) can't win Ari (Marley Shelton) back, so he's heading to South America; Kenny (Eric Christian Olsen) may have found a girl worth more than a one-night stand; and Stephen (Tom Wilkinson) and Anna's (Blythe Danner) relationship is headed for rocky road.

Although I cannot find any proof of my conviction, I am certain that The Hater made some crack about this movie being a run-of-the-mill can't commit movie with a patina of Garden State to make is seem worthwhile. I had no idea how right she was until last night. In fact, she's not enough close to being right.

This movie is crap. Absolute, fucking crap. So little in this movie is genuine. And I realize that some people would tell me that asking for something genuine from Hollywood is asking too much. Listen, those people, something like that is pretty much all a movie like this has going for it. Something genuine, something true to life that the audience can connect to. Not something that the 14 year-old girls sitting behind me who had never been out in public before, much less to a movie before (Audible stage gasp "Do you think he's going to? Omigawd, he did!"), would swoon over. There were multiple points during this movie that I reached over to grab my purse and leave, remembered that I was with three other people, and settled for a full-on eye roll instead.

Most notable point? The fucking narration at the beginning of the movie. Does it ever reappear? Nope. Not a once. Is it in anyway necessary? Not really. Most of that could have been worked in as exposition, and the rest would have worked better as part of the dialogue that occurs later in the movie. Instead, you have to suffer through its "feeling"-ness. Shut up, shut up, Paul Haggis. You are making me sorry I ever touted the genius of Million Dollar Baby. I hope you are happy with yourself. Knowing you are involved with Clint Eastwood's latest movie is making me reconsider seeing it as well.

Shut up about women. Apparently, there are only slutty, shrewish and/or pathetic women in your world. My world is a bit more diverse, but let's look at yours for now. 98% of women, and I'm being generous to you here, Paul, 98% would walk away when they found out the object of their affection had a girlfriend. Esp. if they learn that fact at the first meeting. Don't get me wrong -- Michael misleads Kim in a lot of ways, but he cops to that one pretty quick. Their every interaction after that fact comes off as false. This is largely based in the way Kim in written and in the fact that Bilson doesn't have the acting chops to redeem her in anyway, but everything out of Kim's mouth and all her actions were so pathetic and unconnected to way that real women act as to be a farce.

Shut up about men while you are at it. If you want to see an example of men's relationships done well, watch any episode of Rescue Me. That show, too, short-changes women, but it nails male interaction bar none. As much as I have enjoyed Braff if the past, he, too, doesn't have the chops to rise above the mediocrity he is surrounded by. Mind you, he's not so bad since he gets to play pretty much the only fully fleshed character in the movie, but it's still pretty sucky.

Can I tell you guys something? I loves me some Casey Affleck. I want him to be my boyfriend. He's broody without being dark (a rare feat), and Chris is a grown-up who makes decisions and lives with their consequences. Because I am old, I find that dreamy.

To be honest with you, I mostly wished that Affleck and Wilkinson had a better movie to be in. I hope they find one. D-

Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

Premise: Runner-up regional winner Olive (Abigail Breslin) gets a chance at the national Little Miss Sunshine title when the winner is involved in a diet-pill scandal. The entire family accompanies Olive on her trip across the country: Mom/Sheryl (Toni Collette), who keeps the family together with fried chicken and new age platitudes; Dad/Richard (Greg Kinnear), who is desperately trying to turn his nine step self-help program into a book; brother/Dwayne (Paul Dano), who has taken a vow of silence until he achieves his goal of becoming a test pilot; uncle/Frank (Steve Carrell), who recently attempted suicide after his lover leaves him for his academic rival; and Grandpa (Alan Arkin), Olive's choreographer, who snorts heroin and swears like a sailor because "[he's] old."

So, in other words, everyone is forced to come along with her because of contrivance. There were a few moments in the beginning of the movie where I rolled my eyes at the over-the-top quirkiness of it, but you sort of fall into a lull after a while and start to enjoy it. Plus, Carrell is really, really good in it. Technically speaking, everyone is really good in it -- it's the quality of the performances that elevates the piece above the trappings of the script. I have to single out Carrell, though. That deadpan? Those dead-eyed looks? That nerd run? Fantastic.

By the time you get to the completely ridiculous, completely unearned, completely hysterical climax, you've been won over. Like the beat-up VW they drive, it's slow to start, but there's no stopping it once it starts humming along. Husband and wife directing team Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Ferris keep a tight reign on newcomer Michael Arndt's screenplay, and the viewer is the beneficiary. A-

Hollywoodland (2006)

Summary: Following the suicide of TV's Superman, George Reeves (Ben Affleck), private detective Louis Simo (Adrien Brody) is encouraged to look into the incident as a possible murder. Although he initially seeks to pick up a little money and publicity, Simo becomes engrossed in the mystery. His story plays out against the relationship between Reeves and Toni (Diane Lane), wife of MGM studio head Eddie Mannix (Bob Hoskins).

Let's start with the obvious. Recently, Affleck picked up Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival. Did he deserve it? As Em and I put it, it's a career best performance. Of course, we are talking about Ben Affleck's career. Yeah, sometimes he's so good that you forget that he's acting (something that's never happened to me while watching him before), but sometimes that slips and he's Ben Affleck again. There is a little bit, completely silent, in combination with a little spoken bit, that's breaking my heart nearly a week later, but I think that's more about Reeves that anything Affleck said or did. He's good, but he's not great. I wouldn't toss him another Oscar tomorrow.

As for Lane, who's name is also currently floating around with Oscar's, I'm going to have to say . . . really? For this? I rather enjoy Lane on most occasions -- she's quiet and powerful and sexy and sad and all around good. But here, well, here. Most of the time, she's wonderful: playful and sad in just the right combination. Every once and a while, however, she overacts. Not good.

Hoskins does his Hoskins thing, which is being a consistently good actor.

Oh, Brody. I think I am starting to . . . like you less. I know. I know. I don't know quite how it happened either. I still think you are beautiful, and your delivery is superb, and sometimes your eyes grow to three times their size and glisten just so . . . but, I don't know. Simo just seemed so ahistoric. And I never thought I'd say that about a character you played. Even so, a lot of your character's dialogue sounded so modern that it threw me right out of the movie. Of course, you didn't write the script, so I suppose I should pin the blame on . . .

Paul Bernbaum. Dude, I know you're a television writer, but do some research! Pay someone else to do it for you! I don't care as long as it gets done. And, while we are here, that's your conclusion? Seriously? I can understand it, intellectually. It works best with the evidence that we have and is certainly a possibility. But as a viewer? Left me hanging. Didn't entirely appreciate that. Your script was mostly smooth sailing before that.

Props to director Allen Coulter, who also made the jump to the big screen with this picture. Between you and your DP, Jonathan Freeman, I rather enjoyed what I saw.

Have you ever heard that Ella Fitzgerald classic, "You Won't Be Satisfied"? Although I do not recall it playing during the movie, it is the song that started playing in my head afterwards, and I continue to associate it with the show. It tells the long and short of the movie -- kind of dissatisfing but at least it's pleasingly melancholy. B-

Humour isn't that subjective

 

What the crap? Why is this happening? I know things weren't perfect last year, but is Jon so . . . what, exactly? Why can't he do it again? He's too East Coast? Too outsider-y? Too funny?

 

Not that I don't like Ellen. I do. I think she's hilarious. But her brand of humour, at least on her talk show, is so middle of the road. It's too "don't rock the boat" for Oscars. I like a little spice with my awards shows.