Nacho cheese

It sounds rather cheesy: white man teaches kids in black neighbourhood and his idealism doesn’t get him anywhere until he manages to help this one kid. But the great thing about this film is that it isn’t cheesy. For one, the film doesn’t ram the message home. In fact it is not really clear who is helping who in the end, or if there is any help at all. There’s no happy ending, just a glimmer of hope, maybe. On top of that, our “white hero” isn’t much of a hero really, rather a fully doped-up bum who hardly knows what he’s doing even though he does try every now and then. But that makes the film so great to watch. You’re still rooting for him but there’s never any sentimentality.

And all that brought to the screen by Ryan Gosling, the current superstar who can’t seem to put a foot wrong and is in each and every film. To be honest, he’s probably become a bit too Hollywoody, what with his Barbie shenanigans and other entertainment productions. But this film is nearly 20 years old now and so we see a much younger Gosling who’s still invested in “proper” film making.

Definitely a 4 out of 5 from me and one that I would recommend.

Adrian