Dan Dunne (Ryan Gosling) is a schoolteacher in Brooklyn and a drug addict. When one of his students, Drey (Shareeka Epps) discovers his secret they form an unlikely friendship. Half Nelson is a film about contradictions and the vice like grip drugs can hold on you, just like the wrestling move the film is named … Continue reading Half Nelson
When psychiatrist Dr. Sam Foster (Ewan McGregor) takes on the caseload of an exhausted co-worker he is immediately met with the challenge of a patient determined to take their own life. Henry Lethem (Ryan Gosling) declares to Sam that he will take his own life at midnight on his birthday in a bid to mimic … Continue reading Stay
When a young man named Leland P. Fitzgerald (Ryan Gosling) murders a special needs child he is sent to a juvenile detention centre. There his teacher Pearl Madison (Don Cheadle) tries to help him to open up and explain why he would do such a thing. Meanwhile those impacted by the crime try to come … Continue reading The United States Of Leland
Two Jewish cousins travel to Poland to take a tour in honour of their beloved grandmother who recently died. A Real Pain is the sort of film that appears to be rather slight, but has hidden volumes. At surface level it is an odd couple comedy. David Kaplan, played by Jesse Eisenberg who also wrote … Continue reading A Real Pain
Roy Chutney (Ryan Gosling) finds himself spiralling when two personally devastating events happen back to back. First, his emotionally distant father commits suicide. Second, he is cut from the football team that gives him direction. His path to get back on track may come from local eccentric Gideon Ferguson (David Morse) who approaches him to … Continue reading The Slaughter Rule
Danny Balint (Ryan Gosling) is a violent Neo-Nazi associated with skin head gangs and a movement to try to promote fascism in America. He is also Jewish and under the glare of a journalist who smells a story about this conflict. Cross cutting between Balint as a youth where he studied in the Jewish faith … Continue reading The Believer
When Almut (Florence Pugh) accidentally runs over recently divorced Tobias (Andrew Garfield) with her car they begin a relationship and fall in love. But then a cancer diagnosis for Almut will force them to make some decisions about how to get the most from their time together and what to focus on. We Live In … Continue reading We Live In Time
Samuel (Samuel Theis) is found dead by his visually impaired son Daniel (Milo Machado-Graner) having fallen from the attic room of the family chalet. His wife Sandra (Sandra Huller) is arrested and tried for his murder. As a viewer what we witness in the film is the perspective of Sandra and Daniel on the day … Continue reading Anatomy Of A Fall (Anatomie d’une Chute)
Adam (Andrew Scott) is a screenwriter who is attempting to write about his parents who died in a car crash when he was twelve. As a source of inspiration he gets the train to visit his childhood home only to find his parents there ready to welcome him in. At the same time as this … Continue reading All Of Us Strangers
Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe) is a genius whose skills as a surgeon allow him to bring back to life the dead body of Bella Baxter (Emma Stone). Bella, reanimated without any of her memories or learned skills is effectively a child in a woman’s body. In order to study her personal growth better Godwin … Continue reading Poor Things
Phil the Bear's Film Reviews 