MOVIES AND YOU

HALF NELSON

























I would tout this movie as the opposite of Dead Poet's Society with a pinch of drug use, Indie rock music, civil rights preaching, and a screenwriter who wrote simple scenes from his own life, like going to a bar...or waking up and having a smoke...or something else that is utterly mundane. With all this said, I enjoyed the film and would recommend it. I'm a sucker for films that attempt a character study based on a 24/7 interacting with our protagonist. The quest for reality is sometimes painful but works as a cinematic investment, you leave the theatre feeling connected with the problems the character faced over the two hours. The acting was slightly above mediocre and the constant civil rights reminders don't seem to connect or make any sense to the stories overall themes. The film is about being trapped. Trapped with a drug addiction, a poor lifestyle, a rich lifestyle, the inability to connect with the opposite sex, and basically trapped by life. When the film focuses on this overall theme, the audience is sucked in...but the constant tampering with the films narrative ultimately renders any special moment lame. It's a movie about talking but when the characters enter a house/room to continue the conversation and get to the meat of their feelings the narrative cuts and begins building the viewers interest somewhere else. The score, mainly supplied by Indie Gods, Broken Social Scene works perfectley and mimics the tone/visuals that the director employs. I have a lot of negitives to say but overall I feel like I've gained something from this film, some little nugget about life...don't do drugs? Don't live in a large city? Not those...maybe something about living up to potential or touching the lives around you. Whatever the gain, the film needs to viewed and then maybe you can tell me what I should have been touched by.

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