2006
Directed by Ryan Fleck
Written by Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden
Starring Ryan Gosling and Shareeka Epps
With Anthony Mackie
The Hollywood box office this weekend, if taken as a sampling of what America wants to see, is one of the most depressing and revolting things to come across the cultural history of film.
Because the top two movies of the year are both Ashton Kutcher vehicles.
Meanwhile, hiding along the margins in independent theaters, Ryan Gosling has pulled off a performance that is, astonishingly, even more complex and intelligent than his breakout performance in 2001's The Believer. This time, Gosling is not only surrounded by an excellent supporting cast, but an excellent director as well. Capitalizing on the lazy good looks that have been Gosling's entire performance in his last few forgetable films, the film blasts through the audience, telling the most blisteringly honest portrayal of drug addiction since 2000's Requiem for a Dream, sidestepping or totally ignoring the cliched acts of that dull-as-dirt genre. Gosling's performance is one of, if not the, most refreshing to be seen in this past year. Alongside Gael Garcia Bernal, Gosling excites an audience worried that the next generation of coming male actors consist of nothing more than pretentious boy-men like Haley Joel Osmet, or washed-up models like Josh Hartnett and the aforementioned Ashton Kutcher. While coasting on charisma and appearance has worked for men in film since it's inception, true onscreen artists have been too few and far between. Up to, and including, Half Nelson, Gosling's best work has been ghettoized to the art theater--but his performance in Nelson will stand for an incredibly long time as one of the most passionate and complicated pieces of acting long after the film trudges it's way to the 10$ DVD bin.
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