A movie I got guarantee no one had ever heard of. But my guy Ryan Gosling, in another noir hidden gem.
This is early Ryan, 2006, maybe right after remember the titans. Ryan plays a school teacher in the bronx, presumably a school that is severely underfunded and not in a great part of the city. Ryan plays a teacher who CARES A LOT about these kids. And loves to teach them.
But Ryan has a very bad drug addiction. Cocaine and crack and alcohol. Most of his money goes to this. Yet he continues to function. Barely.
The movie touches on a number of issues. Addiction, family issues, black issues, single parent issues as he develops a special bond with one of his students whose brother is incarcerated and is constantly being pushed towards the drug game at 13 years old, so touches on black systemic incarceration and the issues that come with it, it touches on underfunding of schools and it touches on depression. It TOUCHES on a LOT of big social issues, without going to far into either, it didn’t pick one lane, so you get a taste of all of them.
Ryans journey through his addiction, his care and this special relationship with a student who herself is struggling with who to trust in this tough world make for a REALLY GOOD MOVIE that I think COULD have been better, I do not know how, some of the parts were a little sloppy, but that’s nitpicking. I think this was classic Ryan and the movies he likes. That is a review.