Bleakly filmed and well told, "Half Nelson" soars because of the immaculate acting by Ryan Gosling and Shareeka Epps. Gosling's both alluring and pitiful as an addict, while Epps hits all the right notes as a child who's seen too much hardship.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 26, 2023

...the final scene is so lovely--so subtle, yet funny--that it makes up for any missteps that have come before it.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Sep 16, 2021

The more interesting aspects of the film come in its less pre-determined margins. And maybe the drama is highly strategised, but the acting is real and genuine.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 22, 2021

A fantastic merging of talents into a pure piece of art...

| Apr 12, 2014

Indie inner-city drama with drug-addict teacher.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 15, 2010

"Half Nelson" elegantly tiptoe around its elephant in the room: Dan's most compelling instruction to not let Drey enter the drug trade is his own destruction. That point of panic turns into something approaching penance.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Sep 24, 2010

The filmmakers bask disingenuously in their tidy vision of border-busting healing

| Aug 30, 2009

A sometimes subtle, sometimes bombastic (Gosling's performance ranges from brilliant to bug-eyed) parable about class, race, power, and the dialectics of family relationships.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 23, 2009

The movie hits a stream of false notes when Dunne's students deliver oral reports on Civil Rights struggles that could only have been plagiarized. The film's ending isn't only meager, it's utterly listless.

| Original Score: C | Apr 22, 2009

Ryan Gosling's self-destructive teacher is easily the year's most mesmerizing character study. And he's hardly the only reason to see this film. Shareeka Epps anchors her scenes as Drey with a self-possession way beyond her years.

| Oct 18, 2008

| Original Score: B- | Oct 18, 2008

Gosling is up for an Oscar (R) for his work in Half Nelson, and there's no question he earned the nomination.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Aug 23, 2008

Half Nelson trades melodrama for authenticity, cliche heroics for genuine heart, cheap cinematic parlor tricks for blessed restraint.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Feb 28, 2008

This is a brave, smart and sensitive film.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 12, 2007

We've gotten so close to these characters (and they to each other) that we don't want to let them go.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 14, 2007

It is, in fact, a fine piece of work: reticent, intelligent, wholly devoid of triumphalism or self-pity.

| Apr 28, 2007

It's hardly a film which trumpets its virtues but that's part of the pleasure to be had from it. It doesn't know how good it is.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 27, 2007

While the students first mock Marxist dialectics and notions of oppression applied to the everyday, they are eventually eagerly embracing the rebellious spirit of Attica and Allende in class presentations that provide euphoric momentum.

| Apr 22, 2007

Looks to me like a self conscious film that thrives on its own negativity. Studied, anti-establishment, arthouse cinema that gloats over its moral superiority %u2013 which is rather ironic.

Full Review | Apr 21, 2007

It's a thoughtful character study with Gosling simply tremendous as the functioning addict, who seems to use crack to anaesthetise him from his inability to form adult relationships.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 20, 2007