“Half Nelson’s” third key character is Frank, a drug dealer with ties to Drey’s family, and the nonjudgmental way he is presented is another indication of the kind of film this is.

Predictions are dangerous, but if Ryan Gosling doesn't earn an Academy Award nomination for his heartbreaking star turn in Half Nelson, I'll eat my reporter's notebook. Without salt. Why? Because ...

Half Nelson, written and directed by Ryan Fleck. As the end credits of Half Nelson roll, one feels uncomfortable, certainly disappointed and angry. Why couldn’t this film have been better?

Rock is a pretty general category when it comes to music. From Elvis to Cold Play and everything in between, it seems like anyone can say that they really "rock out." And yet there remains some ...

Half Nelson is an incredibly subtle and engaging film that turns the teaching genre on its heels, though it’s lacking something that made films like Stand & Deliver and Lean on Me so successful ...

A terrific performance by Ryan Gosling is the chief but hardly sole reason to embrace "Half Nelson." Pic avoids melodrama in the potentially hyperbolic tale of a white Brooklyn middle-school ...