Sunday, September 03, 2006




the ghost of john casssavetes

Went to see a movie last night called Half Nelson I want to put the word out about. It stars Ryan Gosling, who made another movie called the The Believer that I never saw, but which was supposed to be quite remarkable, about a Jewish neo-Nazi. Gosling is an incredibly charismatic actor, so charismatic, so HOT, I sometimes wonder if I am being duped, but this movie is definitely worth a look. He plays an (idealistic) junior high school history teacher who powders his nose almost nightly, sometimes with cocaine, sometimes with crack. The awe-inspiring Chareeka Eps plays one of his students who takes it upon herself to watch over him. The film unfolds carefully and slowly, and the actors' rhythms set the pace. There are a lot of scenes which can only have arisen as a result of improvisation. If you know the movies of the late great John Cassavetes, you know what I'm talkin' about. For those of you who read my post about Little Miss Sunshine, the same droves and droves of hipsters who were lining up to see that film were waiting patiently on line at the Embarcadero for this one, so if you don't want to be out in the cold at your next artsy-swanky social occasion, give this one a looksee.

 
Real Time Web Analytics Clicky Web Analytics