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Manic
Mixed or average reviews
Based on 20 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 5 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by:
Michael Bacall
Blayne Weaver
Directed by: Jordan Melamed
Release Date:
Theatrical: April 25, 2003
DVD: January 20, 2004
Running Time: 100 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for disturbing violent content, strong language and some drug use
Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Bacall, Zooey Deschanel, Cody Lightning, Elden Henson, Sara Rivas, Don Cheadle, and Adrienne Rollo
A drama about a violent teen who is committed to a juvenile mental institution where he is forced to confront the source of his rage. (IFC Films)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan
Shows more hopelessness than optimism but is never less than honest.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Manohla Dargis
If the cast is distractingly pretty, the performances are also quite fine and, in the case of Gordon-Levitt, exceptional.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Ron Wells
As always, Don Cheadle is fantastic, but the film belongs to Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Stephen Hunter
It's without posturing or phony outrage, and offers instead something far more affecting: a deep sense of melancholy. This is the way it is, it says, and not much can be done about it.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Mark Caro
This clear-eyed, low-budget drama is populated by troubled teens whose stories aren’t packaged in neat little bows. Their histories are sad, their feelings raw, their futures uncertain.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Laura Sinagra
Often the script (co-written by Michael Bacall, who plays sardonic bipolar rich kid Chad) rings clear with mouths-of-babes declamations that all pained kids spew before downing adulthood's suck-it-up Kool-Aid.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
The texture of Manic feels honest and the chemistry of the kids is well observed, but even the modest breakthroughs are dramatic conventions that favor the symbolic over the genuine.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
Excellent performances redeem Jordan Melamed's gritty teenage version of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Jean Oppenheimer
Don Cheadle is wonderful, as always, as the former drug-addict-turned-psychiatrist who worries it's all hopeless but refuses to stop trying. Sounds clichéd, perhaps, but for the most part it works, thanks to piercingly authentic performances.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
There's something already exhausted, however, in the intrusively gauzy, wobbly, blurry, zoomy digital-video look of the piece.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
If the movie is not original, at least it's a showcase for the actors and writers. It does not speak as well, alas, for director Jordan Melamed and his cinematographer, Nick Hay.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan
Really, we'd rather just watch a good documentary about the subject. And as the camera flings around, we occasionally forget about what could help the teens and think more about what could help the director: How about a tripod?
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
The film doesn't really go anywhere, other than outside for endless games of basketball, and the group-therapy environment allows for far too many young-actor monologues.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jami Bernard
Searching for a documentary feel, the camera here is so shaky that you cling to the arms of your chair lest you pitch into the next row.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
Buoyed by some sensitive performances and nearly tanked by insensitive filming.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Dave Kehr
The camera work is so self-conscious and so intrusive that it consistently overrides our interest in the characters and their individual dramas.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Scott Foundas
Melamed's debut film, Manic, set in a juvenile mental institution, has all the uncertainties of a first run-through.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
What really hurts is the movie's shallow screenwriting, self-indulgent acting, and woozy camerawork.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 9.0 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Julie W. gave it a9:
An honest, albeit disturbing portrayal of a juvenile mental center. Joseph Gordan-Levitt is brilliant.
Mike H. gave it a10:
I've been there and thats more or less how it is but in real life the facilitys are a little more secure thatn that.
Chad S. gave it a 7:
After you adjust to the butt-ugly visual style of this no-budget production, "Manic" impresses with a bevy of good performances, led by Don Cheadle and the guy from "3rd Rock". For me, the film began when Chad(Michael Bacall) shuts down Sleater-Kinney and cues Rage Against the Machine. What ensues, hillariously recalls "The Breakfast Club". At times, the camera-work does seem needlessly busy We want to see Zooey Deschanel's face entire, not an extreme close-up of her eyes, or a cut-away while she's still speaking. You may wonder why Deschanel wasn't part of the "Girl, Interrupted" gang. She's good(as always), and so is this movie after a very, very, very slow start. "Manic" boasts some truly affecting moments. It has the hug of the year, two hugs, actually, featuring a likable goth on both giving and receiving end. Although the low-budget can be hard on the eyes at times, the characters that populate "Manic" won't dissipate from your mind as you leave the theater. Go see "Manic". Go see the likable goth.
