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Half Nelson
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Half Nelson (2006)

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User Rating: 7.5/10 (14,156 votes)
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Overview

Director:
Ryan Fleck
Writers (WGA):
Ryan Fleck (written by) &
Anna Boden (written by)
Release Date:
11 August 2006 (USA) more view trailer
Genre:
Drama more
Tagline:
Secrets don't let go.
Plot:
An inner-city junior high school teacher with a drug habit forms an unlikely friendship with one of his students after she discovers his secret. full summary | add synopsis
Awards:
Nominated for Oscar. Another 22 wins & 21 nominations more
User Comments:
The 'dialectics' indie filmmakers Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden created in "Half Nelson" is realized by Ryan Gosling and Shareeka Epps' unarguably nuanced performances more

Cast

 (Cast overview, first billed only)

Ryan Gosling ... Dan Dunne
Jeff Lima ... Roodly
Shareeka Epps ... Drey

Nathan Corbett ... Terrance
Tyra Kwao-Vovo ... Stacy
Rosemary Ledee ... Gina
Tristan Wilds ... Jamal
Bryce Silver ... Bernard
Kaela C. Pabon ... Lena
Erica Rivera ... Erika (as Erika Rivera)

Stephanie Bast ... Vanessa

Eleanor Hutchins ... Simone
Sebastian Sozzi ... Javier

Tina Holmes ... Rachel

Karen Chilton ... Karen
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Additional Details

MPAA:
Rated R for drug content throughout, language and some sexuality.
Runtime:
USA:106 min (Sundance Film Festival)
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Color:
Color
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Dolby Digital
MOVIEmeter: ?
V 9% since last week why?

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Was originally made as the short film Gowanus, Brooklyn (2004), which won an award at the Sundance Film Festival. Shareeka Epps and Karen Chilton reprise their roles as Drey and Drey's mother. Matt Kerr, who plays the substitute teacher Mr. Light in this film, played Mr. Dunne in the original short. more
Quotes:
Dan: The only constant is change. more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in Screenplay Series with Syd Field (2007) more
Soundtrack:
Passport Radio more

FAQ

What is a Half Nelson?
more
36 out of 53 people found the following comment useful:-
The 'dialectics' indie filmmakers Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden created in "Half Nelson" is realized by Ryan Gosling and Shareeka Epps' unarguably nuanced performances, 3 September 2006
8/10
Author: Ruby Liang (ruby_fff) from sf, usa

Ryan Gosling is truly amazing in his film role deliveries. His breakthrough role in "The Believer" 2001 was explosively intense. He consistently gives integral reflective portrayals, even for a departure romantic role in director Nick Cassavetes' "The Notebook" 2004, he was absolutely convincing as Noah who loves Rachel McAdam's Allie to the core. Here in "Half Nelson," he appears to disappear into Dan Dunne, a high school teacher with an ideal and a crack addiction problem. That sure sounds contradictory in terms: a teacher being a role model, while drug addiction a totally unacceptable behavior. As Dunne wrote on the blackboard in the beginning: 'Dialectics,' the film "Half Nelson" is in itself dialectics demonstrated.

Gosling's Mr. Dunne the history 'teach' doubling also as basketball coach, meeting (a solid matching delivery from) Shareeka Epps' Drey, the 13-year old student who 'found' him and 'witnessed' his secret - theirs is a relationship, naturally portrayed, of two 'opposing' forces as dialectics as can be. I felt Drey is the primary force that 'helped' Dunne's secondary force to yield and together, they created a contradiction anew as life goes on.

I remember from a 1969 book, a quote that might describe the heart of "Half Nelson": "Contradictions are the source of all movement and of all life. All things are in themselves contradictory and it is this principle, more than any other, which expresses the essence of things."

In a way, contradictory yet similar: Dunne and Drey both are 'on their own' trying to hang on, to manage the conflicts in their life's journey. Do we need all the answers in life? Do we have to know why someone behave as he/she does or something happen as it did? Director Ryan Fleck and co-writer/editor/producer Anna Boden tried not to 'over-explain anything'. Sometimes the answer can simply be: "I don't know."

"Half Nelson" is an ambitious film. Besides 'comments' on educational system, single parent family strife, Dan's addiction predicament, the script also managed to include political viewpoints unobtrusively expressed through talking heads of single student reciting historical civil rights movement events. The 'R' rating does indicate some intimate scenes, clever inter-cuts juxtaposing what the two forces were each doing at the moment. Music (by "Broken-Social-Scene") is timely applied at certain segments but sparingly. Well-rounded supporting cast, especially Anthony Mackie as Frank the 'friendly' dealer who may want to do right by Drey but only in the way he knows how within the realms of selling drugs (reminds me of w-d Boaz Yakin's "Fresh" 1994, brilliant debut performance by Sean Nelson as the 12-year old interacting with a dealer 'mentor').

Kudos to all involved on "Half Nelson". The film was shot in Brooklyn, New York. Thanks to ThinkFilm for being the distributor (documentary: Spellbound; Murderball; March of the Penguins; drama: The Last Kiss - Italy; Kontroll - Hungary; Gus Van Sant's Gerry).

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What is the point of crack? dormin111
Ryan Gosling is an interesting actor. crb48
Best Scene in the Film... filmguru1
The insult dates on Board afrase5
Half Nelson Full Crap elke-6
Is it on Cable yet? lcabral4625
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