Half Nelson is totally a genre movie. But it explodes the boundaries of the genre.

The genre is the idealistic white teacher who goes into the black ghetto schools to teach righteous history about things like the civil rights movement. It's Brooklyn, New York, yo. It's eighth grade. Some kids are just asleep in the classroom. Some are interested, but only so far. But there's this one girl who's really sharp and picking up totally on what the teacher is saying about the antiwar movement and Malcolm X. Teacher and student are connecting. Mentor and mentoree going on here big time. Looks like something progressive happening in a big way.

But he's a crack addict and she knows it. And she's not even in puberty.

The whole genre is turned upside down. Where do they go from here? He knows she knows. She knows he knows she knows. They remain student and teacher.

Both have personal lives outside the classroom. We meet the people in their personal lives.

This movie plays out in unexpected ways, but in ways that are always plausible. No guns. No serious violence.

It's just the people who live in Brooklyn, New York, working it out. Tough issues, sensitively explored.

Ryan Gosling, after this and Lars & the Real Girl, you the man.