In theaters

HALF NELSON, directed by Ryan Fleck, written by Fleck and Anna Boden, 107 minutes, rated R.

First, a note: Many of the theatrical films reviewed in these pages over the past several weeks have not been available in the Bangor market. They were sent for awards consideration and are being reviewed in hopes that area theaters will show them, particularly since audiences will be hearing more about them as the Academy Awards approach.

Ryan Fleck’s “Half Nelson” is no exception.

The film features Best Actor nominee Ryan Gosling in what fittingly is his best performance to date. While it’s unlikely that he will win the award – it’s shaping up to be Forest Whitaker’s year – Gosling nevertheless creates a disturbing, convincing portrait of a troubled man wrestling with an addiction to drugs that threatens to ruin him. That his character, Dan Dunne, happens to be an admired history teacher and popular girls basketball coach only heightens his problems, not to mention to the movie’s moral complications.

Set in Brooklyn, this subtle, character-driven movie follows Dunne just as he’s wavering on the cusp of addiction’s full pull. The movie showcases the duality inherent in his life. We see him in class, a good teacher charismatically connecting with his students, and then in squalor at home, which has all the trappings of a drug den.

One night, after basketball practice, Dunne is so desperate to get high that he slips into one of the school’s bathroom stalls, huffs on a crack pipe and becomes nearly comatose. Enter Drey (Shareeka Epps), the 13-year-old girl who catches him in the act with a disappointment that’s palpable – she is, after all, one of his students. Still, instead of turning him in, Drey cares for Dunne, easing him onto the floor and staying with him until his high clears.

From this, their uneasy relationship is born, with Fleck’s film focusing on two people in a state of transition. For fatherless Drey, who is being courted by the local drug dealer (Anthony Mackie) to become his new drug runner (a position that landed her older brother in jail), Dunne represents all that she might become if life has its way with her. For Dunne, life already has unraveled, though you sense through his tenuous connection with Drey that each might find a way to survive.

Not that anyone should expect it. “Half Nelson” isn’t a feel-good movie. After dragging you through the hell of its characters’ lives, it doesn’t use them or their undesirable situations to lift you up – it’s too honest for that.

Beyond the performances, which are uniformly strong (Epps should have joined 10-year-old Abigail Breslin in being nominated for Best Supporting Actress – she’s that good), what makes this movie so emotionally satisfying is that it isn’t interested in offering canned satisfaction. Unlike so many movies that involve the relationships between teachers and their students, “Nelson” isn’t manufactured to offer audiences an inspirational cheer at the end. If anything, whatever shred of hope it presents hangs in the balance. The movie refuses to pander.

Since it’s doubtful that local theaters will show the film before the Academy Awards – we continue to be a market that presumably only can support such drivel as “Epic Movie,” “Blood and Chocolate” and “Smokin’ Aces” – the good news is that “Half Nelson” will be available on DVD on Feb. 13, two weeks before the awards.

Grade: A-

On DVD and HD DVD

HOLLYWOODLAND, directed by Allen Coulter, written by Paul Bernbaum, 126 minutes, rated R.

Some of us are still waiting for the movie in which Adrien Brody once again reveals the greatness he showcased in his Academy Award-winning performance in “The Pianist.” Where has it gone? It wasn’t on display in M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Village,” which squandered his talent, nor did it come through in Peter Jackson’s “King Kong,” which wasn’t exactly a surprise given the star of the movie was its special effects.

Still, in the noirish undercurrent of “Hollywoodland,” there was the expectation that this could be a return to form for the actor. It wasn’t.

As the fictional Louis Simo, a private detective with a fractured home life, Brody is only ever competent in a movie that embraces competence, not the greatness it could have achieved given the intriguing story at its core.

The film involves the potential mystery surrounding the violent death of George Reeves (Ben Affleck), who played Superman in the 1950s television series “Adventures of Superman” before allegedly shooting himself in the head with his own speeding bullet when he realized that he’d never been seen as anything more than the Man of Steel. Since there’s the question that Reeves didn’t commit suicide and that his death was murder, it’s left to Simo to find out.

If the very title of “Hollywoodland” makes it sound as authentic as a back-lot set, Paul Bernbaum’s script reinforces that notion. Rarely in this movie are you aware that you aren’t watching actors going through the motions of making a movie. Performances by Diane Lane as Reeve’s older lover, Toni Mannix, and Bob Hoskins as Toni’s husband and MGM studio executive, Eddie Mannix, join much of the rest of the cast in their inability to connect with material too scattered to generate something real.

While production values are excellent and Affleck makes an effort to do something more challenging than his embarrassing rash of recent films, the movie’s one saving grace is Lois Smith’s memorable supporting performance as Reeves’ mother, who hires Simo to learn the truth about Reeves’ death. Smith holds the screen better than anyone else. She is magnetic and unshakable, giving each of her scenes an interest and a weight the movie otherwise lacks.

Grade: C

Visit www.weekinrewind.com, the archive of Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s reviews, which appear Mondays in Discovering, Fridays in Happening, and weekends in Television as well as on bangordailynews.com. He may be reached at Christopher@weekinrewind.com.

The Video-DVD Corner

Renting a video or a DVD? BDN film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases in video stores. Those in bold print are new to video stores this week.

Akeelah and the Bee – B+

American Psycho: Blu-ray – B+

Annapolis – C-

The Ant Bully – B+

Basic Instinct 2 – D+

Big Momma’s House 2 – D

The Black Dahlia – C-

Breakfast on Pluto – B

The Break-Up – B

Cars – C

Cheaper by the Dozen 2 – C-

Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – A

Clerks II – B+

Click – C-

The Constant Gardener – A-

The Covenant – D

Crank – B+

Curious George – B

Date Movie – D-

The Da Vinci Code – C+

The Descent – B+

The Devil Wears Prada – B+

Double Indemnity – A

Employee of the Month – C

Failure to Launch – C-

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift – B

Flyboys – C-

Freedomland – C-

Friends with Money – B

Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties – C+

The Gridiron Gang – C+

The Grudge 2 – D-

A History of Violence – A

Hollywoodland – C

How Art Made the World – A

The Illusionist – B+

Inside Man – B+

Invincible – B

Jackass Number Two – B

Junebug – A

Kinky Boots – B+

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang – B+

Last Holiday – B

The Libertine – D

Little Miss Sunshine – B+

Lucky Number Slevin – B

The Marine – C+

Match Point – A

Miami Vice – C

Mission Impossible III – C-

Monster House – B+

Munich – A-

My Super Ex-Girlfriend – A-

Nacho Libre – C

North Country – C

The Omen – B-

Open Season – B

Over the Hedge – B

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest – B-

Poseidon – B

A Prairie Home Companion – C

Robert Mitchum Signature Collection – B

Rumor Has It… – C-

Running with Scissors – C+

Shakespeare Behind Bars – A-

16 Blocks – B

Slither – B

Snakes On A Plane: A-

Stay Alive – D-

Superman Returns – C+

The Tailor of Panama: Blu-ray – A-

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby – B

This Film is Not Yet Rated – B-

United 93 – A

V for Vendetta – B+

We Were Soldiers: Blu-ray – A-

The Wicker Man – BOMB

World Trade Center – A

X-Men: The Last Stand – B-

You, Me and Dupree – C-