Half Nelson

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Half Nelson offers an opportunity to marvel, once again, at the dazzling talent of Ryan Gosling for playing young men as believable as they are psychologically trip-wired.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Superb drama from New York-based filmmakers Ryan Flek and Anna Boden.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

What is different about Half Nelson is the execution, the kind of subtlety in writing, directing and acting (by costars Shareeka Epps and Anthony Mackie as well as Gosling) you seldom see.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

A dedicated, charismatic, crack-addicted history teacher is the most believable protagonist in an American movie this year.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

The movie lives in its small details.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Gosling excels at playing contradictory characters like this one, having kick-started his career as a Jewish neo-Nazi in "The Believer," but here, his inner turmoil rarely gets vocalized. It's a remarkably subtle performance.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

At a time when most American movies, studio made or "independent," seem ever more divorced from anything approximating actual life experience, Half Nelson is so sobering and searingly truthful that watching it feels like being tossed from a calm beach into a raging current.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

What makes Half Nelson both an unusual and an exceptional American film, particularly at a time when even films about Sept. 11 are professed to have no politics, is its insistence on political consciousness as a moral imperative.

Village Voice Rob Nelson

The audacity of making an inner-city drama in which the white-male authority figure is the crackhead finds its equal in Gosling's already legendary performance, a high-wire act that's gutsiest for its unconscionable charm.

USA Today Claudia Puig

A compelling drama that establishes Ryan Gosling as one of the finest actors of his generation.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Gosling may be the soul of Half Nelson, but Epps is the film's heart.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

No halves about it: Half Nelson is a wholly absorbing and delicately shaded portrait of an educator played by Ryan Gosling, a young man harboring an offstage secret.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Gosling, who was amazing in "The Believer" but hasn't yet connected substantially with a big audience, continues to impress.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Best where it counts the most - in its recognition of how difficult it will be for Dan and Drey to turn their lives around.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Gianni Truzzi

Just in time for back-to-school, this smart film about a troubled teacher and student upends most movie images, both romantic and negatively stereotyped, of the urban classroom.

Empire Angie Errigo

Just wonderful with its offbeat but wholly credible storyline, down-to-earth style and exceptionally fine performances.

Slate Dana Stevens

It keeps surprising us, mainly by being consistently smarter and sadder than inspirational-teacher movies usually let themselves be.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

It's a complex and defiant fable of American life run just slightly off the rails, delivering all the impact of "Crash" without the phony-baloney paradoxes or brick-in-the-face message delivery.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Nearly every scene rings with its own ragged truth, which becomes increasingly painful as Dan's addiction becomes more unmanageable and as he refuses to confront the untenable politics of his own behavior.

Film Threat Don R. Lewis

Fleck manages to mix the storylines which include drug abuse, political commentary and making good choices about your life's path flawlessly.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

Downbeat as it is, Half Nelson is a genuinely inspirational film--a terrifically compelling character study and a tricky exploration of the links (and busted links) between the personal and the political.

The Hollywood Reporter James Greenberg

If there was ever any doubt, with Half Nelson, Ryan Gosling establishes himself as a major talent and one of the finest young actors around.

Variety Dennis Harvey

Avoiding rote inspirational notes as well as boyz-in-the-hood violence, scrupulously low-key drama nonetheless builds to a powerful impact.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Half Nelson, with its bleakly hopeful view of humanity both damned and redeemed – simultaneously – is uncomfortably, almost exactly right.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

The movie is not credible, even in an inner-city setting. At the same time, it's touching.

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

You never catch Gosling doing anything out of character. It's the first Oscar-caliber performance I've seen so far this year.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

This is a grown-up film that puts liberalism under the microscope and finds it tired -- not a dirty word, as neo-cons believe, and not a panacea, as sentimentalists wish, but just tired and longing for rejuvenation.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

It's a performance that will make you cringe - with despair, with empathy - as Gosling's Dan takes one self-destructive step after another.

Premiere Krista Vitola

Nelson works largely because Gosling and Epps work flawlessly together.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

It is not easy to watch, yet beyond the traps that society and the urban culture have set up for Drey and the other kids, and the traps that Dan is falling into on his own, this is ultimately a hopeful story of common humanity.

New York Post Kyle Smith

Too bad there is only about half an hour's worth of story here. Mostly, we just watch the teacher get high, and his classroom talks about civil rights are nothing but filler.