So It's Not About Wrestling!

It is time for the Garlic City Review's first review. Can you smell it? By sheer luck of timing, lack of money, and the alignment of my couch to the television, our first review will be of a movie. The film "Half Nelson," starring Ryan Gosling to be exact. Though Chuy saw the movie first, I get to post the first review as his computer is in the land of glitch and crashies. So when he has salvaged what he can from his laptop, after he has grown technologically wiser, and financially poorer, he will write his reveiw. For now, only I can share my cinematic experience with the world. Only I can...okay, to the review.

I saw the movie "Half Nelson" after Chuy recommended it. I was originally hesitant to watch it because:
a. I didn't know anyone who was in it,
b. I thought it was a movie that involved high school wrestling, and
c. Chuy said it was "just wrong," which usually is very bad.
That all goes back to his recommendation for another movie whose name I won't mention here, but let's just say that "just wrong" usually refers to historical visual trauma. Still, he kept recommending the movie, and told me that it did not involve any wrestling, so I risked the ghosts of the past.

I thought the movie was slightly odd in its resolution or non-resolution at the end, but not "just wrong," in whatever way Chuy was seeing it. Instead I thought it was a great independent film, with strong acting, and admirable for the way it avoided easy answers. I actually tend to like ambiguous endings ( a la Clint Eastwood), if done well and intelligently, and I thought this movie made a nice attempt. I always like the non-Hollywood polish of independent films, which give them a unique character lacking in most of today's movies. However, it was the strength of the acting by Ryan Gosling and the supporting actors that worked for me most of all. Gosling's portrayal of a crack? meth? smoking high school teacher was a study in the way an addict slowly loses his grip on his basic moral principles. Great job all around, I highly recommend this movie and give it four out of five garlics.