By Susan Thea Posnock
Over at IMdb Pro (the paid subscription version of The Internet Movie Database) they have weekly MOVIEmeter and STARmeter ratings, nifty little charts that gage what movies, television shows or celebrities are "hot" based on IMdb user searches.
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Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Monday, October 16, 2006
Opposing Forces
By Susan Thea Posnock
Something strange has been happening to me lately. Mysterious forces are at work and I'm gripped with the kind of anxiety I haven't felt on a regular basis since college.
This feeling has been prompted by recent screenings of Half Nelson and Little Children. Rather than my typical "light and breezy" column, it seems only a properly researched term paper will suffice in dissecting these films.
That’s not a knock on either--in fact in many ways it’s praise. Returning to the student mindset raises questions and can be a thrilling exercise. At the same time, heady themes can either make a story soar, or drop like a lead balloon.
Half Nelson, (definitely not to be confused with 1985's short-lived Joe Pesci series of the same name), the independent feature from director/writer Ryan Fleck and producer/co-writer Anna Boden is arguably the more ambitious of the two because of its underlying philosophy. It's an unconventional classroom drama in which the "hero" is a white, crack-addicted teacher named Dan Dunne (Ryan Gosling), who uses dialectics to teach history to his mostly black students. The theory, from German philosopher Georg Hegel, says the clashing of opposing forces leads to change. The film demonstrates this simply through an arm wrestling match between Dan and one of his eighth-graders. He tells the kids how when one force overtakes the other (in this case he overcomes the strength of his student) it leads to a turning point. On a larger scale, dialectics can be applied to movements like Civil Rights or wars.
Read the rest here.
Something strange has been happening to me lately. Mysterious forces are at work and I'm gripped with the kind of anxiety I haven't felt on a regular basis since college.
This feeling has been prompted by recent screenings of Half Nelson and Little Children. Rather than my typical "light and breezy" column, it seems only a properly researched term paper will suffice in dissecting these films.
That’s not a knock on either--in fact in many ways it’s praise. Returning to the student mindset raises questions and can be a thrilling exercise. At the same time, heady themes can either make a story soar, or drop like a lead balloon.
Half Nelson, (definitely not to be confused with 1985's short-lived Joe Pesci series of the same name), the independent feature from director/writer Ryan Fleck and producer/co-writer Anna Boden is arguably the more ambitious of the two because of its underlying philosophy. It's an unconventional classroom drama in which the "hero" is a white, crack-addicted teacher named Dan Dunne (Ryan Gosling), who uses dialectics to teach history to his mostly black students. The theory, from German philosopher Georg Hegel, says the clashing of opposing forces leads to change. The film demonstrates this simply through an arm wrestling match between Dan and one of his eighth-graders. He tells the kids how when one force overtakes the other (in this case he overcomes the strength of his student) it leads to a turning point. On a larger scale, dialectics can be applied to movements like Civil Rights or wars.
Read the rest here.
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Interview with Shareeka Epps
By Susan Thea Posnock
In an industry that's full to the brim with Disney Channel-groomed starlets, Half Nelson's talented newcomer Shareeka Epps stands out.
She was discovered in a Brooklyn classroom when filmmakers Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden were casting their short film Gowanus, Brooklyn. After that film's success-it won the short film award at Sundance in 2004-Fleck and Boden were able to shoot the full-length version. While actor Ryan Gosling took over the role of teacher Dan Dunne, Epps auditioned for and won the right to expand the pivotal role of Drey, the student who befriends her crack-addicted instructor.
Read the rest here...
In an industry that's full to the brim with Disney Channel-groomed starlets, Half Nelson's talented newcomer Shareeka Epps stands out.
She was discovered in a Brooklyn classroom when filmmakers Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden were casting their short film Gowanus, Brooklyn. After that film's success-it won the short film award at Sundance in 2004-Fleck and Boden were able to shoot the full-length version. While actor Ryan Gosling took over the role of teacher Dan Dunne, Epps auditioned for and won the right to expand the pivotal role of Drey, the student who befriends her crack-addicted instructor.
Read the rest here...
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