Half Nelson (2006, USA)

Perhaps I just wasn’t paying close enough attention, but it took at least an hour after I finished watching Half Nelson for me to have that “Oh!” moment, and understand why everyone freaked out about how great it was. On the whole, despite a great performance by Ryan Gosling as a drugged-out inner-city junior high school teacher, it’s got a pretty paint-by-numbers indie drama plot. Apart from Gosling, the real redeeming quality of the movie is wrapped up in the understanding that a thirteen-year-old girl is the smartest and most self-aware character on the scene – if you can’t buy this, then the film just won’t work for you. As Drey, Shareeka Epps is great, but it’s the machinations of her character that gives the film its depth. I’m still not entirely sold on the nearly uniform critical praise that Half Nelson received last year, but it is one of the better American indie films I’ve seen recently, and it makes me sad that Gosling is riding his well-deserved Oscar nomination right into yet another psycho-Anthony Hopkins thriller.