A Short Cut Movie Review is normally less than 400 words, but in some cases may go slightly over. This is my attempt to keep writing about as many films as I see without getting bogged down with trying to find more to say. They are meant to be brief snapshots of my reaction to a movie without too much depth.
Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden adapted this story of a drug
addicted public school teacher in the inner city from a short film they made
two years earlier. Ryan Gosling was Oscar-nominated for playing the middle
school teacher and girls basketball coach whose student discovers his secret
addiction. Fleck directs entirely with handheld cameras, sticking true to the
typical cinema verite style that so many gritty urban dramas employ. The young
Shareeka Epps is a standout as the sensible and quiet Drey, who is essentially alone
and in desperate need of an adult role model with an older brother in prison
and a mother who works double shifts as an EMT. Gosling and a local drug dealer
name Frank (Anthony Mackie) vie to be that role model. Neither is particularly
well-suited to the job and the movie does either a sly or an irresponsible
thing in making us hope Drey steers clear of Frank in favor of her teacher.
Fleck is much less interested in the perils of addition
than he is in the moral quandary of a white drug addict thinking he’s a better
mentor for a child than a dealer. Unfortunately he doesn’t know quite where to
take the story or how to end it convincingly. Drug addicts don’t often arrive
at happy endings, and when they do it takes a lot more time than Fleck devotes
to it.
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