BEFORE: I haven't felt right since breakfast today - I think I got a bad egg sandwich and started feeling queasy around lunch - so I didn't eat dinner, and I'm just waiting it out and clearing out my system. ("American Runs on Dunkin'?" More like "America Gets the Runs from Dunkin'"...)
Maybe feeling crappy will help me watch and understand this movie about a drug-addicted high-school teacher.
THE PLOT: An inner-city junior high school teacher with a drug habit forms an unlikely friendship with one of his students after she discovers his secret.
AFTER: This one was a real struggle to get through. It moved at a snail's pace, and there was no real progression or resolution. For a much better and non-boring film on a similar subject, please check out "Requiem For a Dream" if you haven't already seen it.
Ah, a credit at the end explains a lot - this film was workshopped at the Sundance Institute. Probably did very well at the Sundance Festival, too, because it's so dark and obtuse, and as I said, moves extrememly slowly. (Sure enough, it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize there in 2006. Won a few Independent Spirit Awards too - you know, the awards show that wants to be the Oscars when it grows up.)
There are a couple of key moments that the screenplay seemed to be built around - most notably when Dan Dunne has Drey, his student, in his car, and they get approached by another car, containing Dan's dealer, who is also an influence in Drey's life. The dealer says, "Want some candy?", and for a moment we're not sure if he's talking about drugs, or actual candy...
It takes about an hour for anything to, you know, happen - and the movie only perks up in a few places, like when Dan visits his parents' house for dinner near the end of the film. I would have liked to have seen more of that, his family seemed fairly disfunctional, which might have explained a lot about his background. Nope, I'm out of luck.
I get it, he uses drugs to escape his personal pain, but unfortunately watching someone get high and not hit their bottom point just isn't all that interesting. You could say he's learned to cover his tracks and function as part of "the machine", but so freakin' what?
In Happy Accident #178, like "Blow", this movie also features the song "Can't You See" by the Marshall Tucker Band - it's one of those few things that perks up the film for a few minutes.
Starring Ryan Gosling (last seen in "Murder By Numbers"), Shareeka Epps, Anthony Mackie (last seen in "Hollywood Homicide"), Tina Holmes, Deborah Rush (who I tend to confuse with Rachael Harris), and a cameo from Jay O. Sanders (last seen in "Cadillac Records")
RATING: 3 out of 10 nosebleeds
[Very minor Spoiler Alert]
ReplyDeleteQuestion John: Did you get any sense of why Dan's cat just suddenly dies? I remember watching the movie and thinking when it happened that they hadn't shown anything about the cat being sick and there wasn't any clear indication that Dan had been on a bender and the cat, say, died of thirst? Did I miss something? I saw another (terrible) movie a few months ago that also included a substance abusing main character whose pet inexplicably dies and it pissed me off tremendously. Not that addicts don't neglect their pets until they die -- sadly, I imagine that happens plenty in real life -- but make it clear that the animal's death is due to negligence and make a point. Don't just use it as a cheap, unexplained sentimental moment or a chance for an epiphany while letting the character off the hook for negligence. Okay, that's my question and my subsequent rant.
I didn't pick up on any direct cause-and-effect, like he was too stoned to feed his cat, or anything like that. I just thought it was used as one of the bad things that happened to him (like his ex getting engaged) that made him want to use drugs.
ReplyDeleteI think the movie walked a fine line - portraying someone who uses drugs, but they haven't (yet) taken over his life entirely. They never got around to showing the real dramatic consequences of having an addiction, they seemed more interested in depicting someone who could (more or less) keep it hidden. Showing a negative effect of his drug use, like it causing the death of his cat, would have messed with this balance.
A couple years ago, we had a dead stray cat in front of our house, I think it turned up there during a heat wave, but sometimes there isn't a "Why" - sometimes it's just a dead body that needs to dealt with. Yeah, I felt terrible, but I had to detach myself from the situation enough to be able to clean it up.
Another dead stray turned up in our neighbor's driveway, and that situation was a little more humorous, but I digress...