![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
edenfallingI am continuing to watch movies Joseph Gordon-Levitt has been in. The latest was Manic, since it was available streaming from Netflix, while 10 Things I Hate About You is only available in physical disc form and will arrive at my apartment tomorrow afternoon.
Anyway. Manic is a kind of narrativeless story about a bunch of kids in a... I don't know the proper terminology. Mental health ward? It's an ensemble film, but the main character in that ensemble is Lyle, who has anger management issues that led him to nearly beat another teen to death with a baseball bat. We meet the other kids in his therapy group, the counselor/administrator who leads that group, and two of the orderlies (one businesslike and friends with the counselor, one gratingly smarmy). We follow the kids through various group therapy sessions, outdoor recreation periods, music hour, random conversations, and so on. We also see the strain this job places on the counselor (played by Don Cheadle, who is awesome, btw) and how there are no easy answers.
There are several running subplots: Sara's love for art and her low-key friendship with Tracey; Lyle and Chad's half-baked plan to run away to Amsterdam; Lyle's awkward kind-of friendship with his roommate Kenny (what happens to Kenny later on is heartbreaking); the way Mike antagonizes everyone, but especially Lyle and Sara (who both have anger and impulse control issues); Chad's dislike of taking his medications; Lyle's attraction to Tracey and how that's complicated by his anger, her withdrawal, and the lingering trauma of her (I think) rape; several basketball games; people talking about ways other patients in other wards managed to escape; etc.
There are no magic breakthroughs. The end comes after a horrible thing happens to Kenny, and after Chad (who went off his meds in secret) completely loses his shit. Lyle gets hold of a set of keys and manages to escape... but in the end he doesn't get on the bus and try to go to Amsterdam. Instead, he goes back to the ward -- presumably realizing that he does have problems and he can't fix them just by going somewhere else. The geographic cure does not work: no matter how far you run, you can't get away from yourself.
The film is stylistically interesting. I think it was shot on video camera, mostly? Anyway, the image quality is often grainy and washed out with ambient light, very amateurish in appearance. I believe that is deliberate, since in some scenes things tighten up and are much more in focus. Scenes dealing with the counselor are almost always in focus and look almost like traditional film, while scenes with the kids fuzz in and out. I suspect this is in some ways an attempt to portray the characters' mental states.
The use of music and art is also interesting. Lyle and Chad bond over music, among other things. Sara uses art as an emotional stabilizer, and she and Chad have an argument over Van Gogh at one point that comes back in echoes twice later on. There is a persistent theme of people reaching out for connection, but often failing to properly communicate.
Anyway. I am not sure I would call Manic a good film, necessarily, but it's certainly not a bad one, and it is definitely lingering with me. I am glad I saw it.
Anyway. Manic is a kind of narrativeless story about a bunch of kids in a... I don't know the proper terminology. Mental health ward? It's an ensemble film, but the main character in that ensemble is Lyle, who has anger management issues that led him to nearly beat another teen to death with a baseball bat. We meet the other kids in his therapy group, the counselor/administrator who leads that group, and two of the orderlies (one businesslike and friends with the counselor, one gratingly smarmy). We follow the kids through various group therapy sessions, outdoor recreation periods, music hour, random conversations, and so on. We also see the strain this job places on the counselor (played by Don Cheadle, who is awesome, btw) and how there are no easy answers.
There are several running subplots: Sara's love for art and her low-key friendship with Tracey; Lyle and Chad's half-baked plan to run away to Amsterdam; Lyle's awkward kind-of friendship with his roommate Kenny (what happens to Kenny later on is heartbreaking); the way Mike antagonizes everyone, but especially Lyle and Sara (who both have anger and impulse control issues); Chad's dislike of taking his medications; Lyle's attraction to Tracey and how that's complicated by his anger, her withdrawal, and the lingering trauma of her (I think) rape; several basketball games; people talking about ways other patients in other wards managed to escape; etc.
There are no magic breakthroughs. The end comes after a horrible thing happens to Kenny, and after Chad (who went off his meds in secret) completely loses his shit. Lyle gets hold of a set of keys and manages to escape... but in the end he doesn't get on the bus and try to go to Amsterdam. Instead, he goes back to the ward -- presumably realizing that he does have problems and he can't fix them just by going somewhere else. The geographic cure does not work: no matter how far you run, you can't get away from yourself.
The film is stylistically interesting. I think it was shot on video camera, mostly? Anyway, the image quality is often grainy and washed out with ambient light, very amateurish in appearance. I believe that is deliberate, since in some scenes things tighten up and are much more in focus. Scenes dealing with the counselor are almost always in focus and look almost like traditional film, while scenes with the kids fuzz in and out. I suspect this is in some ways an attempt to portray the characters' mental states.
The use of music and art is also interesting. Lyle and Chad bond over music, among other things. Sara uses art as an emotional stabilizer, and she and Chad have an argument over Van Gogh at one point that comes back in echoes twice later on. There is a persistent theme of people reaching out for connection, but often failing to properly communicate.
Anyway. I am not sure I would call Manic a good film, necessarily, but it's certainly not a bad one, and it is definitely lingering with me. I am glad I saw it.
