With Ryan Gosling winning plaudits for his star-turn as a junior high school teacher who saves the galaxy, an arrival in my mailbox reminded me of a previous performance by Gosling as a junior high school teacher, one whose problems are much more earthbound.
Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden’s Half Nelson has just been released on Blu-ray by Imprint Films1, and it encouraged me to revisit my original review from 2007:
A very welcome return from the Festival is Half Nelson, a beautifully acted character study about a gifted school teacher (Ryan Gosling) with a drug problem and the unlikely friendship he forms with one of his students, played by newcomer Shareeka Epps. They are both lonely and misunderstood and for a short while they make a connection (even if it is mostly unspoken).
Of all the young leading men around at the moment (many of whom also seem to be named Ryan) Gosling is the real deal. It’s no accident that Peter Jackson has cast him as the father in The Lovely Bones despite being about ten years too young for the role. On this evidence he’ll be fine.
I was quite the soothsayer in those days but perhaps it was inevitable that Gosling would be fired from The Lovely Bones for turning up in Wellington with a method actor’s weight gain.
Half Nelson was also a predictor of talent that would be fed into the franchise machine – Boden and Fleck went on to make Captain Marvel in 2019, supporting actor Anthony Mackie is now Captain America and Gosling is making a Star War.
Also in that October 2007 Capital Times review: Paul Verhoeven’s wartime melodrama, Black Book, enjoyable Jamie Foxx vehicle, The Kingdom (I described it as “CSI: Saudi”) and Scarlet Johansson in The Nanny Diaries.
Where to watch Half Nelson
Physical Media: Blu-ray from Imprint Films
Aotearoa: Not currently available online
Australia: Streaming on SBS
Canada: Streaming on Prime Video
Ireland: Streaming on RakutenTV (free with ads)
India: Not currently available online
USA: Streaming on Prime Video, Fubo or AMC+
UK: Streaming on Prime Video, RakutenTV (free with ads) or the Icon channel on Prime Video
- Interestingly, the Aussie website has the release date as 29 October 2025 but it has only just made it across the ditch. With a limited run of only 1500 copies, maybe we are only getting the final few. ↩︎
