USA,
2005, 106 min
Shown in 2006
CREDITS
- dir
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Ryan Fleck
- prod
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Jamie Patricof, Alex Orlovsky, Lynette Howell
- scr
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Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck
- cam
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Andrij Parekh
- editor
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Anna Boden
- cast
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Ryan Gosling, Shareeka Epps, Anthony Mackie
- source
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ThinkFilm, 23 East 22nd St, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10010. FAX: 212-444-7901. EMAIL: wsmith@thinkfilmcompany.com.
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COMMENTS
Skyy Prize contender. Ryan Fleck, Jamie Patricof and Anna Boden in attendance. FIPRESCI Prize winner.
OTHER
An idealistic Brooklyn junior high school teacher, battling institutional apathy and a crippling drug addiction, strikes up an unlikely relationship with one of his students in this low-key, naturalistic look at friendship and inner-city life. Ryan Gosling (The Believer, The Notebook) is Dan Dunne, a young man attempting to transfer his passion for politics, philosophy and social justice to his junior high students. Veering away from the staid assigned classroom readings, he remains at odds with the by-the-book principal but popular with his charges. Outside the classroom, however, Dan’s life is a complete mess, spent trolling bars, getting drunk and pushing his drug habit as far as it can go. He’s discovered one day passed out and in a crack fugue by his student Drey, a meeting that sets off an unexpected friendship. Dealing with the scars of drug addiction in her own family, the wise-beyond-her-years Drey takes Dan under her wing, while Dan tries to offer her whatever quasi-paternal wisdom he can as they both struggle to change and improve their lives. As Dan, Gosling delivers a performance as nuanced and appealing as his character in The Believer was raw and confrontational. Shareeka Epps brings an ageless wisdom and grace to her role as a young woman who, surrounded by childlike adults, is forced to grow up all too quickly. Appealingly personal and steadfastly unmelodramatic, Half Nelson is further flavored by the specific ambience of Brooklyn and a score by indie supergroup Broken Social Scene.
FACTOID #80
Irving ’Bud’ Levin, owner of San Francisco’s Metro Theatre, founded the SFIFF in 1957. However, Levin credited the idea for creating the Festival to the Italian consul general at the time, Pierluigi Alvera, who became one of its staunchest supporters.
