Red Heads, Rabbit Feet and other Annoyances

I had an interesting weekend of movies. One with a phenomenal performance and another that deprived me of 90 minutes of my life that I will never get back. I was able to finally see Half Nelson. It was on my Netflix list when it was in theaters. I’ve been a fan of Ryan Gosling since The Believer (Great film. See it) but I wanted to see what gave this budding thespian his first Oscar nod.

Half Nelson tells the story of young educator Dan Dunne (Gosling) as he navigates his drug addiction while motivating inner city kids through his history classes. He forges a friendship with one of his students Drey (Shareeka Epps) after she finds him hittin’ the pipe. Drey is coming to terms with losing her brother to the prison system while his drug dealing friend Frank (Anthony Mackie) tries taking over a brother-like role.

The film is masterful in setting tone and showing the daily lives of these characters. In true independent style, this movie moves at a meandering pace. Kinda like a French movie. You just sit and wait to see where the film takes you. Half Nelson lacks that artificial feeling where the plot drives the character’s actions without cause. The film is soley about Gosling’s performance, charisma and chemistry with his young actors.

He is such an expressive emotional actor. His character was bombed throughout the movie yet he pulled it together for his class. It makes you wonder how many addicts exist on this level. He managed to express this teacher’s joy, inspiration and anguish through a drug-induced haze. Brilliant! There were several scenes that broke my heart with their fragility. Two involved Drey finding Dan high while the other was a torturous trip to Dan’s parent’s wine soaked house.

Epps was outstanding as a junior high student trying to overcome her surroundings. Here foray into the drug culture was tense. She has a real freshness that comes with an acting debut. I enjoyed their interactions. I truly believed this is what a friendship would be like between a young teacher and student. Overall the movie was an in depth look at unlikely friendships and drug addiction. It seemed to be about 10 minutes too long but kept me involved.

I wish the same could be said for the 2006 Lindsey Lohan vehicle Just My Luck. Yes, I watched this 80s-style rip off on Cinemax. Don’t judge me. I like to think I’m diverse in my film selections. All I can say is that this movie was ridiculous from the first scene of Ashley Albright (Lohan) having such great luck that she doesn’t require an umbrella. As her public relations agency boss was stuck in an elevator, lucky Ashley successfully pitched the high-powered record exec. Yeah right. To make things sillier, she is given an office and company credit card. Meanwhile, we meet unlucky Jake Hardin (Chris Pine). This poor guy is so unfortunate that when he finds a five dollar bill it’s smeared with dog poop. Yuck! A chance meeting and kiss reverses their luck.

I’m usually down with the teeny bopper fantasy flicks but this movie didn’t work on several levels. For someone who doesn’t believe in luck, she spends a big chunk of the movies trying to get her mojo back. I also love that making the hunky guy wear big glasses and a huge backpack makes him Urkel. I could see his hotness through the dated frames.

It’s hard to imagine this is the same girl that was in Mean Girls. It’s an uninspired movie and acting. I know you’re supposed to suspend your belief in movies like this but it was close to impossible.

What did you see this weekend?