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2011 was definitely Ryan Gosling's year but this guy has actually been around for a decade and it was about time he got the recognition he deserved. Way before that, in 2006, he made this forgotten and underrated gem and I was really eager to check it out. The interesting thing with this flick is that, on a paper, it did sound rather shabby but the execution was just nothing short of brilliant. During the first 5-10 minutes, I thought it might turn out to be another teacher-student flick, something between 'Entre les murs' and 'Dead Poet Society' but, fairly quickly, it became something completely different. Basically, it was focusing on 3 characters (the teacher, the student, the drug dealer) and they were all portrayed with great sensitivity. I especially enjoyed the drug dealer played by Anthony Mackie. Indeed, even though he was indeed selling some lethal substances and was potentially dangerous, he still did care for this girl and, at several points, there was a confrontation between him and the teacher but he never used violence which was something you might have expected from a drug dealer. Eventually, you might wonder who was the best role model for her : this level-headed drug dealer or this junkie teacher. And, of course, Ryan Gosling was quite awesome and delivered a great performance earning him a Academy Award nomination in the process. My only complain would be about the ending. Indeed, at the end, the teacher ends up in a hotel room with some crack heads and his student brings him some drug... It was all rather corny, if you ask me. And then, she came back a day later to help him to clean up his act. This way, they did try to bring some kind of happy ending but it was not really convincing. All in all, it it was such a sad and rather depressing movie but so spellbinding to watch. To conclude, it is a really good flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Ryan Gosling's work.
8/10
