Benefit
Bluelighter
For those of you who don't know, Half Nelson was the indie film darling of 2006. Ryan Gosling stars as Dan Dunne, a drug-addicted inner-city middle school teacher who gets caught smoking crack in the locker room by one of his students. Coincidentally, this same student has been earmarked by the local crack dealer Frank as his new runner. Even more coincidentally, Dan buys his crack from Frank. In a nutshell, this is Half Nelson.
The film is very complex and meditative. You've got a young teacher who genuinely wants to do some good in the world and seems pretty good at what he does; at the same time, he can't even save himself from the seemingly impenetrable cycle of smoking crack, snorting cocaine, picking up bar sluts and hookers and all the other self-loathing debauchery which we are all very familiar with here at Bluelight.
The movie's morality is therefore very complex and the end provides no concrete resolution; there is a feeling of positive change but the fundamental issues are left completely unresolved, which is brilliant within the framework of this particular movie because it strives to reflect reality as much as possible. Our real lives hardly ever conform to a self-contained narrative arc with a clearly defined beginning, middle and end, so the movie would do a disservice to itself if it had ended with conventional plot resolution.
Apathy is a strong subtext in the movie. When Dan picks up chicks from the bar he always ends up waxing philosophically on society and politics which causes the women to immediately become unresponsive and disinterested. They only want to fuck and get high, which is also what Dan wants to do but the duality of his character causes him to search for some kind of intellectual or emotional reciprocation, the lack of which is what probably pushes him toward drug use. Of course, he ends up finding what he's looking for (sort of) in a very unlikely place.
From a broader perspective, the movie explores the role of the individual in society. This is done in a variety of subtle and complex ways: by examining the student-teacher dichotomy; by depicting a white, upper-middle class teacher in a largely black urban neighborhood; by focusing on drug use and drug dealing; by exploring the desire to change the system while still being a part of it (the exact point he makes in one of his lectures). Dan Dunne wants to help his students succeed so they can avoid falling victim to the seductive allure of selling drugs, but at the same time he supports the drug dealing infrastructure in the neighborhood by buying drugs. That last one, with all its seeming contradictions and complex moral implications, is what really makes this film so rich and deep.
For all its depth, the film suffers a bit from a few minor things. It has that slow, plodding feel to it that seems to be obligatory for all indie flicks these days; I didn't find it boring but I could see how some people might since basically nothing happens; it's all character development. Also, almost everything is shot with a handheld and the jerky camera work also conveyed a sense of indie obligation. I felt like I was watching NYPD Blue or something. Tracking shots and tripods never hurt anyone!
Half Nelson treats many of the same issues as Crash, but is less heavy handed about it and it shies away from the clichéd and forced interconnectivity of Crash and Babel. The dialogue is good, and comes across as natural; the whole film has a very subdued and realistic feeling; it plays almost like a fictionalized documentary.
And lastly, the movie is worth seeing solely for Ryan Gosling. His performance is stunning and pitch-perfect; he's simultaneously vulnerable, immature, playful, disturbed, charismatic, confident, inspiring and pathetic. It's simply a stellar and amazingly subtle display of nuanced acting. The relationship between the two main characters is also quite nuanced, but well done and charming. Everything about his film has the glow of realistic depiction.
The soundtrack is pretty good, but also very indie.
The film is very complex and meditative. You've got a young teacher who genuinely wants to do some good in the world and seems pretty good at what he does; at the same time, he can't even save himself from the seemingly impenetrable cycle of smoking crack, snorting cocaine, picking up bar sluts and hookers and all the other self-loathing debauchery which we are all very familiar with here at Bluelight.
The movie's morality is therefore very complex and the end provides no concrete resolution; there is a feeling of positive change but the fundamental issues are left completely unresolved, which is brilliant within the framework of this particular movie because it strives to reflect reality as much as possible. Our real lives hardly ever conform to a self-contained narrative arc with a clearly defined beginning, middle and end, so the movie would do a disservice to itself if it had ended with conventional plot resolution.
Apathy is a strong subtext in the movie. When Dan picks up chicks from the bar he always ends up waxing philosophically on society and politics which causes the women to immediately become unresponsive and disinterested. They only want to fuck and get high, which is also what Dan wants to do but the duality of his character causes him to search for some kind of intellectual or emotional reciprocation, the lack of which is what probably pushes him toward drug use. Of course, he ends up finding what he's looking for (sort of) in a very unlikely place.
From a broader perspective, the movie explores the role of the individual in society. This is done in a variety of subtle and complex ways: by examining the student-teacher dichotomy; by depicting a white, upper-middle class teacher in a largely black urban neighborhood; by focusing on drug use and drug dealing; by exploring the desire to change the system while still being a part of it (the exact point he makes in one of his lectures). Dan Dunne wants to help his students succeed so they can avoid falling victim to the seductive allure of selling drugs, but at the same time he supports the drug dealing infrastructure in the neighborhood by buying drugs. That last one, with all its seeming contradictions and complex moral implications, is what really makes this film so rich and deep.
For all its depth, the film suffers a bit from a few minor things. It has that slow, plodding feel to it that seems to be obligatory for all indie flicks these days; I didn't find it boring but I could see how some people might since basically nothing happens; it's all character development. Also, almost everything is shot with a handheld and the jerky camera work also conveyed a sense of indie obligation. I felt like I was watching NYPD Blue or something. Tracking shots and tripods never hurt anyone!
Half Nelson treats many of the same issues as Crash, but is less heavy handed about it and it shies away from the clichéd and forced interconnectivity of Crash and Babel. The dialogue is good, and comes across as natural; the whole film has a very subdued and realistic feeling; it plays almost like a fictionalized documentary.
And lastly, the movie is worth seeing solely for Ryan Gosling. His performance is stunning and pitch-perfect; he's simultaneously vulnerable, immature, playful, disturbed, charismatic, confident, inspiring and pathetic. It's simply a stellar and amazingly subtle display of nuanced acting. The relationship between the two main characters is also quite nuanced, but well done and charming. Everything about his film has the glow of realistic depiction.
The soundtrack is pretty good, but also very indie.
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