Half Nelson

[MacGuffin]

Trailer here.

Release Date: August 11th, 2006 (NY/LA)

Starring: Ryan Gosling, Anthony Mackie, Shareeka Epps, Deborah Rush, Jay O. Sanders

Director: Ryan Fleck

Premise: A unique relationship develops between a white schoolteacher, his African-American student and a local drug dealer.

[nix]

I swear to God this was a short film first. Can't remember what it was called, but I saw it at the nashville film fest in 04 or 05. The teacher was much older but the premise was exactly the same.

[modage]

I swear to God this was a short film first

it was.  as far as the feature, kevin smith, (who sat in for ebert this week), called it one of the best films he's seen in the past 10 years.

[MacGuffin]

I swear to God this was a short film first. Can't remember what it was called, but I saw it at the nashville film fest in 04 or 05. The teacher was much older but the premise was exactly the same.

http://imdb.com/title/tt0392061/

as far as the feature, kevin smith, (who sat in for ebert this week), called it one of the best films he's seen in the past 10 years.

Kevin Smith Doesn't Have Enough Thumbs for Half Nelson

Director Kevin Smith, guest hosting on Ebert and Roeper this week (he was sitting in for Roger Ebert, who is still recovering), waxed rhapsodic on Half Nelson, which opened today. How much did Smith love Half Nelson? Check out these quotes (courtesy of the PR firm repping the film):

"This pops. This pops in a big bad way. And also, when you look at it, it's the work of people who haven't made a lot of flicks. Like this dude, Fleck, this is, he took the short film he had, blew it up into this feature and it holds . . . You know, like it's an amazing piece to look at where, I sit there as a filmmaker and I'm like, this dude's way better than me. I've been doing this twelve years. This dude is phenomenal."

and ...

"There aren't enough thumbs in the world to do HALF NELSON half the justice it deserves. This is just simply an incredible film."

[MacGuffin]

Making 'Half Nelson' a Learning Experience
The teacher-student story is rewarding for the film's cast and director.
Source: Los Angeles Times

Director Ryan Fleck can't pinpoint the inspiration for his first feature film, "Half Nelson," which he co-wrote and produced with his girlfriend, Anna Boden. The drama, which opens Friday, revolves around an idealistic young teacher at an inner-city junior high school whose personal life is spiraling downward.

Fleck thinks the genesis may have had something to do with protests he attended before the commencement of the U.S. bombing of Iraq in 2003.

"We were going to a lot of these protests, and it was kind of exciting because we felt like we were going to have some kind of impact," Fleck said. "But we didn't. I think that frustration of feeling like you can't make a difference ... is what's driving this character through self-destruction."

No one was banging on Fleck and Boden's door to read their script, so they shot a 19-minute version, "Gowanus, Brooklyn," which won the short film prize at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival.

The feature's focus is on the teacher, Dan (Ryan Gosling), and his unlikely friendship with a bright student named Drey (Shareeka Epps) after she discovers him smoking a crack pipe in the school's restroom. The short revolved around Drey.

Epps, now 17, was all of 13 when she was cast in "Gowanus, Brooklyn." Fleck and Boden had gone to Brooklyn middle schools, asking drama teachers if they had any students worth considering for the part.

"I was pulled out of my dance class by a drama teacher," said Epps, who enters her senior year in high school next month. "They wanted some nonexperienced kids to audition for it."

Even after making a big splash at Sundance, Fleck and Boden had a hard time interesting independent film financiers. "I would have thought it would have been an instant entry into the feature world," said Fleck. "But it was still a struggle."

The reason, he believes, is that, on paper, "Half Nelson" is extremely dark. "It's hard to translate what's on the page. The nature of the story is pretty heavy, even though we wanted to handle it with a light touch."

Eventually the money was raised. "Half Nelson" was shot in 20 days with a budget of less than $1 million.

Before production began, Fleck and Boden contacted Epps about reprising her role as Drey. They were worried that she would be too old for the part.

"We hadn't seen her in a few years, but we met with her when we were starting to cast the movie," Fleck said. "She hadn't grown at all. Definitely, working with Shareeka on the short taught us a lot about the character."

Gosling, 25, wasn't on their initial casting list because the character of the teacher was envisioned as being in his 30s, Fleck said. He's still fuzzy on how the connection was made. "Our casting director somehow talked to his manager, and before I knew what was happening, I was meeting with him," he said.

Though nothing in the script changed with Gosling's hiring, the actor "had lots of ideas," which Fleck said he welcomed. "We love to collaborate with actors. I have a lot of respect for what they do. And going with someone in their mid-20s was a great dynamic because he's much closer to the kids' age. I think it lends itself to these themes of youthful idealism."

A former member of the "Mickey Mouse Club," Gosling is considered one of young Hollywood's most versatile talents, bursting into the scene in 2001 as a neo-Nazi teenager in "The Believer" and then making female hearts flutter in the 2004 romantic drama "The Notebook."

"Half Nelson," says Gosling, was exactly the project he had been looking for. It's about "real people," he said. "People we have all met. People like us. The fact I would be working with a lot of people who weren't actors and teaching in a class with kids — those are the kind of things I find interesting. And working for a really small budget gives you a lot of freedom."

A month before filming started, Gosling rented an apartment in Brooklyn just a block away from the school where the film was shot. "It was nice to walk to work in the morning and be in this environment," he said.

He also spent time following a junior high school teacher, David Easton, who, like his character, invigorates and challenges his students.

"He let me sit in on his class," Gosling said. "He was like their friend and was always going off the book and trying to keep them interested and engaged. The day I came to visit, he had gotten a soft-shell crab and brought it into class and taught the kids that everybody has to have a shell to protect it. He was trying to relate that to the defense that they had built for themselves as sort of a shell. He was just an all-around great guy."

And a pretty good actor to boot, as Easton was cast as Dan's older brother in the film.

Gosling immediately bonded with Epps.

"Everybody loved her," said Gosling, who remains close with the young actress. "It was real amazing to watch her on set, actually. She just makes you feel good. You started to notice that, during filming, people were trying to get 15 minutes in with Shareeka. She would pick them up for the day. She was like crew morale."

Gosling was equally exuberant about working with Fleck. "We never had to hit a mark or say a line the same way twice," the actor said. "We were always free to explore the impulses we were having in the scene. It's as free as I've ever been. I think it's hard to fail in that kind of environment, no matter who you are."

[JG]

i've been waiting for someone to use 'you forgot it in people' in a movie.  i hope that's the soundtrack.  if it is, i will be very happy. 

[pete]

just saw this.  best film of the year.
anthony mackie is probably the most underrated actor of our time.  he's got looks and charisma, but can't get a break.

[JG]

phenomenal.   i went to this just cos i wanted to see it and i happened upon a showing with a Q & A with the co-writers/director.   

the story is elevated by everything -- the acting, the music, the visuals -- they all expand and make the movie greater and bigger that it should have been.  gosling is phenomenal, and as expected i loved the BSS.  there's one scene, i won't give it away, but it was one of the most emotional experiences i've had in a long time at the cinema.  pete probably knows what i'm talking about.  seriously the last 20 minutes are about as perfect as possible. 

regarding the Q & A:  i hate everybody.  offering their interpretations and asking the director about metaphors, like they're trying to impress one another.  psh.  cambridge.  i only had the balls to ask about the BSS, but they seemed pretty down to earth and cool. and just as agitated as i was.

so yeah one of the best of the year. 

[pete]

what is "bss".  and by the way, dude, I worked at that theater.  if you told them you were my friend/illegitimate son they'd probably sneak you in.

[JG]

broken social scene.  the music they used.

and by the way dude i went to that theater like every week this summer.

you don't work there any more though?  i'm positive i saw you once when i saw thank you for smoking.   you were hunching over sweeping i think. i was with a friend and we were in a hurry. otherwise i would have said hello

[pete]

yeah that sounds like humble little me.  but that was like a while ago?  I left in may.

[gob]

This (after Hot Fuzz) is my most anticipated film at the moment. Shame there's no freaking release date scheduled for the UK.

[samsong]

beautiful but too subtle for its own good.  it's one of the most poorly paced films i've ever seen.  i'll perpetuate the praise for the performances--they're all fantastic.  i found the broken social scene to be distracting in spots and somewhat inappropriate, but it was great to hear their music in a movie theater. 

[JG]

whadya mean misplaced?  the shampoo suicide scene is the single most powerful thing in a long time (new world excluded).

and yeah pete that was in like april. 

[samsong]

that was the one time where i thought it really, really worked.  stars and sons felt out of place but not as much as guilty cubicles or lover's spit.