Last night I watched the movie Half Nelson, and it was absolutely the most amazing movie I have seen in awhile. Every scene was brilliantly acted, and the director's choice of using hand held cameras made me feel as if I was watching a documentary instead of a ficitionalized movie. I can't stop thinking about it, but I guess that's what a good movie should do to people. At first I didn't even want to rent it because it looked like one of those stereotypical white teacher helps inner city kids realize their potential stuff, but in fact, the movie strays far from that genre. I think a lot of the sucess of the movie has to do with its subtlety, which keeps it from being cliche. Many scenes stand out in my mind, but the most powerful one has to be when Dan Dunne (the teacher played by Ryan Gosling) gives Drey (one of his students) the money for the crack cocaine. The soundtrack of that scene and the silent acting between these two characters delivers a powerful blow and I would say is the climax of the movie. This film just reinforces in my mind the amazing acting abilities of Ryan Gosling, and I think the oscar nodd that he got was definitely deserved. And I can't forget to mention that he looks great in it too. ;]
Watching this movie also made me think about how they create the drug scenes. The actor has to really snort something, but that must be really uncomfortable. I remember when my friends and I tried to be cool in middle school we would snort those pixie candy sticks, and it was REALLY REALLY uncomfortable. Maybe a person is standing behind him with a vacuum and like...sucks it up. Or maybe he just endures the uncomfortableness. Hmm...food for thought.
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