Half Nelson (2006)
Storyline
Despite his dedication to the junior-high students who fill his classroom, idealistic teacher Dan Dunne leads a secret life of addiction that the majority of his students will never know. But things change when a troubled student Drey makes a startling discovery of his secret life, causing a tenuous bond between the two that could either end disastrously or provide a catalyst of hope.
Directors
Cast
Monique Gabriela Curnen, Denis O'Hare, Anthony Mackie, Ryan Gosling, Nicole Vicius, Deborah Rush, Jay O. Sanders, Sharon Washington, Sebastian Sozzi, Karen Chilton, Deidre Goodwin, Raymond Anthony Thomas, Stephanie Bast, Adepero Oduye, Starla Benford, Ron Cephas Jones, Katie Nehra, Tristan Mack Wilds, Jeff Lima, Shareeka Epps, Tina Holmes, Nathan Corbett, Tyra Kwao-Vovo, Rosemary Ledee, Bryce Silver, Kaela C. Pabon, Erica Rivera, Eleanor Hutchins, Collins Pennie, David Easton, Christopher Williamson, Leslie Eva Glaser, Matt Kerr, Thaddeus Daniels, Susan Kerner, Stanton Davis, Steve Kursh
Trailer
Reviews
100
Entertainment Weekly
Half Nelson offers an opportunity to marvel, once again, at the dazzling talent of Ryan Gosling for playing young men as believable as they are psychologically trip-wired.
100
Superb drama from New York-based filmmakers Ryan Flek and Anna Boden.
91
The A.V. Club
Gosling excels at playing contradictory characters like this one, having kick-started his career as a Jewish neo-Nazi in "The Believer," but here, his inner turmoil rarely gets vocalized. It's a remarkably subtle performance.
90
Village Voice
The audacity of making an inner-city drama in which the white-male authority figure is the crackhead finds its equal in Gosling's already legendary performance, a high-wire act that's gutsiest for its unconscionable charm.
90
What makes Half Nelson both an unusual and an exceptional American film, particularly at a time when even films about Sept. 11 are professed to have no politics, is its insistence on political consciousness as a moral imperative.
