Manic (2002)
See Joey Gordon-Leavitt act his
little heart out. See Joey Gordon-Leavitt prove that
he is more than a comic actor. See Joey Gordon-Leavitt
show us he is no one-trick-pony. See Joey Gordon-Leavitt
is a little hottie. See Joey Gordon-Leavitt has reached
puberty and can grow facial hair. In fact, seeing
Joey Gordon-Leavitt is about the only reason to watch
"Manic."
Why they didn't call this typical,
contrived and unbelievable film "One Flew over the
Cuckoo's Nest - The Prequel" is anybody's guess. Set
in a teenager's mental institution, the film even
has a young, nearly silent Native-American boy in
it. I wasn't going to be happy with the film unless
he picked up a water fountain and threw it through
a window to escape. Sadly, he doesn't.
It's obvious pretty early on that
the film isn't going to be very good. For one thing,
they've cast Joey Gordon-Leavitt, the hilarious little
hottie from TV's "Third Rock" as a bad- ass, violent,
quiet, disturbed young man. Yeah, right. I'm not saying
little Joey can't act, because he does a fair job
here, I'm just saying nobody wants to see him play
this role. Why would he choose such a hackneyed and
typical piece of crap to start his film career? Didn't
he get any other offers? Damn, that's sad. At least
he spends the majority of the film with his shirt
off and his underwear waistband fairly visible. He
looks sexy as hell.
The film is basically a remake of
"Lost Angels" but I guess it's been 13 years or so
since that came out, so... maybe we needed a remake?
Joey is a young man who gets in fights and his frustrated
mother, whom we never really meet, sends him off to
a psychiatric hospital run by Don Cheadle. (He needs
a good script too). There are lots of disturbed young
people in the place including a androgynous Goth girl,
a young female painter who screams violently at night,
a violent white boy who thinks he's a gangbanger,
and a bipolar young skate punk who seems like he's
got it pretty much together for awhile. Cheadle plays
the counselor who allows profanity, violence and confrontations
in the group sessions (who the fuck insures this place?)
The kids fuck around a lot and talk
some and we see that they're all pretty fucked-up.
It's sad, of course, because some of them don't seem
that bad and we realize that their rich parents probably
just stuck them there to keep them out of their hair.
Joey doesn't talk much for a long time but eventually
he hooks up with the artist girl and makes friends
with the skater dude. He fights with the gangbanger
wannabee a lot and eventually we find out his story,
why he's there and why he is so violent. It's all
pretty typical and it has all been done before.
The film was written by Michael
Bacall, who plays the skater dude (you will recognize
him immediately as he has been in a ton of movies
and TV shows) and another young actor, Blayne Weaver.
Weaver, who is also in the film, is also Disney's
new voice of Peter Pan. Their script is nothing special
Bacall is kinda cute and we kinda wish that he and
Joey were sent to an all-boys institution and, one
night they get bored and horny, and... But alas, Zooey
Deschannel hangs around to make sure no nonsense like
that goes on. Sigh.
"Manic" isn't all that horrible,
just typical. The acting is certainly acceptable even
if Gordon-Leavitt acts as if he obviously has something
to prove. Neophyte director Jordan Melamed does an
adequate job and even seems to allow the film to be
loose enough for the actors to try new stuff. Theres
lots of shots, for example, of a shirtless Joey all
alone, bumping around in his room, tearing shit up
and stuff. Hey, who wouldn't hang out with shirtless
Joey and let him improvise for hours while the 35mm
camera rolled, if given the opportunity?
The music in the film by Michael
Linnen and David Wingo is quite nice and a standout
scene in the film has the group tearing up the rec
room of the Institute while some new Ass Rock song
plays (is it Rage Against the Machine? I don't know.
I'm over 30). But this scene only points out the real
problem of the film. The kids here have far more freedom
then we hope they would in real life if they were
in an institution. If this is an adequate reflection
of the status of mental health care of troubled teenagers
in modern America, this film is far more shocking
than I gave it credit for.
As it is, though, I find that hard
to believe. It's more possible and easier to believe
that this is just a contrived and overwrought script
by a couple of young actors hoping to get a chance
to show us their chops. They picked up a good, young,
TV actor looking to prove the same thing and were
able to get some money together. Isn't that living
the dream?
Note:
Also with Cody Lightning.
A Rage Against the Machine concert
is discussed. A Van Gogh painting is somewhat important
to the plot.
