Half Nelson

Ryan Gosling made happen what happens only once every so often. Made me look at what I seen before under a new magnifying light. He took me with him and showed me, with the most astonishing clarity, the complexity of... Full review

... this is just a dreary, wandering, no-payoff movie. I don't need a Hollywood ending, but even a small degree of resolution would add a touch of interest. Otherwise, what's the point? The viewer becomes nothing more than a voyeur, watching... Full review

I absolutely loved this movie. Incredible story line and phenomenal acting! Oscar goes to director and Ryan Gosling in my book. I'm still speechless.... Full review

you can see everything before it happens. the characters are dull and the movie is boring. nothing happens that you can't see coming at least 10 minutes before it happens.... Full review

I really wanted to love this movie and instead I just thought it was good. The parallels b/w Gossling's teaching life and personal life were done well, showing how he certainly didn't practice what he preached. It's almost like teaching was... Full review

This was absolutely the longest movie I ever sat through. It was boring, boring, boring. There were no redeming qualities. The teacher was a good man who couldn't get his act together and was a horrible role model for his students.... Full review

I had great difficulty staying awake through this dreadful movie. (if thats what it was). Not that there wasn't great potential. The teacher was a believable character. The young girl basketball player was a believable character, the drug dealer was a... Full review

you can see everything before it happens. the characters are dull and the movie is boring. nothing happens that you can't see coming at least 10 minutes before it happens.... Full review

I had great difficulty staying awake through this dreadful movie. (if thats what it was). Not that there wasn't great potential. The teacher was a believable character. The young girl basketball player was a believable character, the drug dealer was a... Full review

I really wanted to love this movie and instead I just thought it was good. The parallels b/w Gossling's teaching life and personal life were done well, showing how he certainly didn't practice what he preached. It's almost like teaching was... Full review

I gave this film 1 star just because I thought Ryan Gosling was pretty good in the film and hopefully he knew this film was a huge risk, but trying to broaden his acting he wanted to do something Independent. Both certainly showed great acting talent in this... ... Full Review

Ryan Gosling in Half Nelson Ryan Gosling received an Oscar nomination for his mesmerising performance as a middle-school teacher with a secret in this smart, raw, wonderfully restrained movie. Half Nelson handles the emotional bond between the pair in surprising, measured ways. ... Full Review

Look out for a quite beautiful supporting performance from Shareeka Epps as the 13-year-old student who discovers Dan is risking his career by night while trying to inspire youngsters by day. Although Gosling's performance as drug-addicted teacher Dan Dunne is terrific, not much happens to satisfy mainstream audiences eager for microwave-ready violent confrontation. ... Full Review

Equally important in the film is Drey (short for Audrey), a bright, 13-year-old black girl in his history class, superbly played by Shareeka Epps, a non-professional actor.....Half Nelson, the film in question, the first feature of director Ryan Fleck and his co-screenwriter Anna Boden, who also edited and co-produced, might have been doubly appalling..... ... Full Review

It's impressively adult, sure-footed filmmaking....Fracture (15 cert, 113 min) Gosling is hardly any less good in Fracture, a much more conventional entertainment but one that's shiny, sardonic and engrossing.....This film, the feature debut of Ryan Fleck, could have been a schematic nuisance....Oscar-nominated in the excellent junkie drama Half Nelson , and outacting Anthony Hopkins in a sleek judicial thriller called Fracture.....that Best Actor nod was definitely deserved..... ... Full Review

Keir Gilchrist, who plays Toni Collette's son on Showtime's United States of Tara, has nabbed the lead role in a coming-of-age film from the filmmakers of Half Nelson. ... Full Article

Focus Features will finance, produce and distribute the next film from the writer-director team behind the 2006 pic "Half Nelson." The specialty division has boarded "It's Kind of a Funny Story," a coming-of-age dramedy that Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden... ... Full Article

Telegraph Rating: * * * * Sugar is about being a stranger in a strange land, when the strange land is America. It's about the point where ambition falters and reality kicks in. ... Full Article

Endeavor Independent head Graham Taylor will now run the independent film arm of William Morris Endeavor. The spokesman didn't reveal how the rest of the department will be staffed. ... Full Article

How do you follow the superlative Half Nelson? With the only-slightly-less-superlative Sugar, another tough, tender drama that swerves formula and ducks sentiment, its meticulous human observations and measured movie technique confirming Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck as consummate filmmakers. ... Full Article

Goldy Moldavsky | Published April 30, 2009 A scene from Divers , directed by Paris Mavroidis It's hard to walk down a street in Brooklyn these days without stumbling across a film shoot every now and then. ... Full Article