Manic (2003)

The subjects of this film are a group of kids in a mental health facility - sentenced to therapy for various problems. Some are victimizers. All are victims. Lyle (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is the new kid on the block and we watch him go from silent rage to being an active participant in his own healing.

This is a foreign world to me: I can't identify with the problems or the feelings on display here. The camera does its best to make the viewer part of the action rather than an outsider looking in, though. There are lots of in-your-face shots and dancing about -- which usually gets on my last nerve, but really worked to make me as agitated as the kids I was watching.

There's a bit of "Breakfast Club" in the feel here. It's a mixed group of kids, most of whom would never choose to hang out together: there's a goth girl with razor scars, a fearful and innocent boy, a pretty but nervous good girl, a bully in hip-hop garb, and a good-natured buddy for our violent hero. The kids should just be thanking their lucky stars that they've got empathetic Don Cheadle on their side rather than Principal Vernon. Basically, it's a dysfunctional family -- they hate each other and they need each other.

B-