Movies have a hard time with drugs. Anyone who has seen “Wet Hot American Summer” knows that the descent-into-sweating-madness story arc of your typical “drug movie” is played out to the point of self-parody. Most writers end up closer to “Reefer Madness” than they do to anything like a realistic depiction of drugs and drug users. So the stubbornly (if self-consciously) dualistic and subdued writing and performances of “Half Nelson” are refreshing almost to the point of being startling. When you say “crackhead,” most movies give you some sort of hyperactive psychopath. “Half Nelson” gives us an earnest, confused, exhausted, fractured real person. Even without the sensitivity to race, character, and story, this realism alone deserves kudos.
by Katherine Follett | Source: ThinkFilm DVD
02 Nov 2009 11:35 AM | Submit Comment
