Call it a well-meaning failure.
Comment
05/09/03
Manic (2003)
69
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:58
Fresh:40
Rotten:18
Average Rating:6.4/10
Consensus: A well-acted drama about trouble teens.
Runtime: 1 hr 40 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Jordan Melamed's directorial debut is a strikingly honest depiction of life in a juvenile mental ward. Following a disturbing and violent fight at school, Lyle (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is... [More]
Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Don Cheadle, Zooey Deschanel, Michael Bacall
Director: Jordan Melamed
Reviews for Manic
The group-talk and anguished groping feel true, as does David's frustrations with the kids.
05/08/03
Top CriticAll the performances are poignant, and, while the screenplay reaches no new conclusions, it allows the actors room to create and grow.
05/08/03
Never clearly defines the machine that its malcontent characters ... rage against, or overcomes its deeply embedded psycho-ward-movie clichés.
05/08/03
I'm guessing the art photography is meant to signify a fragile state; instead, it suggests an attention disorder to which camcorder-wielding filmmakers are dismayingly susceptible.
05/07/03
Searching for a documentary feel, the camera here is so shaky that you cling to the arms of your chair lest you pitch into the next row.
05/02/03
It begins to feel a little like one of those made-for-TV, issue-of-the-week melodramas Linda Blair used to star in.
05/01/03
Shooting on digital video gives the film a spareness and immediacy that works well with its subject. The portrayals are all so natural and deeply felt that there are moments when it feels like we are watching something that is happening right now.
05/01/03
Shows scenes of life in a psychiatric unit, and it's up to you to draw conclusions about the usefulness or pointlessness of the high-tension life of the ward.
04/29/03
[A]n unrelenting and insightful look at some deeply disturbed young people and their dedicated but frustrated counselor.
04/28/03
The young cast throw themselves (quite literally) into their demanding assignments with vigor.
04/25/03
The camera work is so self-conscious and so intrusive that it consistently overrides our interest in the characters and their individual dramas.
04/25/03
Top CriticExcellent performances redeem Jordan Melamed's gritty teenage version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
04/25/03
A stunningly potent story of troubled patients at a juvenile mental institution.
04/25/03
Top CriticThe film doesn't really go anywhere, other than outside for endless games of basketball, and the group-therapy environment allows for far too many young-actor monologues.
04/24/03
Spoiled adolescents fill a mental institution with whining, pouting, and tantrums, and we're supposed to feel their pain.
04/24/03
Presents a realistic portrayal of the kids' complicated and confounding mental illness.
04/24/03
While Gordon-Levitt leans hard on an overcompensatory Timberlake scowl, he's kept real by the rest of the ensemble.
04/22/03
Despite strong performances, the film is too loosely structured with a plot that looks like the director's going down a checklist.
04/03/03
Joseph Gordon-Levitt is terrific as the lead in this raw, indie, Gen X version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
02/07/03
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