DemiRonin Manic centers around Lyle, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, a teenager with a furious and uncontrollable rage. At the beginning of the film Lyle gets sent to an psychological institute for bashing a boy's head in with a bat when the boy made fun of his father. Now confined against his will Lyle must learn to control his rage with a looney bin of kids whom he thinks are below him. Don Cheadle plays the in house psychologist who struggles daily to keep his kids from tearing at not only each other the but even the facility. This film has some amazing performances by all the entire cast, they are as realistic as they are powerful. From the white guy who pretends he's black and such a thug, to the sexually abused and the suicidal. All the youngin here provide true and deep portrayals of their scarred characters. I would like to note that Don Cheadle does a really good job in conveying a person who not only wants to help these kids but who's armor is not thick enough to have some deep scars of his own from their interactions. However the film is just terribly directed (non acting wise). The shooting method which seems to resemble really poor standard DV with amateurish framing and panning doesn't meld with his editing style. There are sections of the film where it lingers on basketball scenes or scenes of mayhem but the cinematography is all close ups and zooms of artsy things like birds or eyeballs. This film had great potential, but a little bit more planning for pace and shot selection would have done miracles. Manic has both realistic elements and very artsy elements, and a strong choice in one direction would have made for a better and more cohesive film.

wrongboyo Manic is another great film, with a fantastic performance by Joseph Gordon Levitt. The film follows Lyle (Joseph Gordon Levitt) a young man, admitted to a youth psychiatric ward for anger issues, after nearly beating another kid to death.At first, seemingly apathetic (yeah, Joseph Gordon Levitt seems to play that character a lot) to all of the pain the teenagers around him have endured, Lyle eventually warms up to them, and learns to cope with his own issues, while helping them with theirs.The film is show in a documentary style, that really puts the viewer into the film. The atmosphere is great and there are a few moments in the film where the director puts the camera to such an effect where you fall into the mindset of the characters.Manic is one of the best films released in the past ten years, as far as I'm concerned, and I'd recommend it to anyone.

Elswet This film is gritty. It is...explosive. Dramatic. There is little to warm your heart, but there is a great deal of connectivity with the troubled youth of today. Don Cheadle is 100% convincing in his role as Dr. David Monroe, which was a genuine, but delightful, surprise.Lyle teaches us that society and societal issues drives us, shapes us, and sometimes misshapes us down deep, where it matters. The problems of his friends and fellow in-house residents cuts the meat this film is made of, while demonstrating aptly how our messed up society produces messed up individuals.They teach us to believe in the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, the Tooth Faerie...and then they tell us it was all just a lie. But we're not supposed to lie. So do we hate those who have lied to us? Hate the lies themselves? Or adapt and accept? This demonstrates the fight or flight instinct within us all, and aptly so.All in all, this is a great film which is deserving of your time, however, it may be a bit too darkly depressing for a Friday or Saturday night flick.It rates an 8.1/10 from...the Fiend :.

Shawn Watson Problem teens are everywhere and make everyone's life hell, we know this. I would love to send all of these miserable bastards away to some fortified compound where they can never return from.But you have to think about a few things. Why are problem teens the way they are? Most of the time it can be attributed to bad upbringing, which is really the fault of irresponsible or evil adults. So I guess that some people are just screwed from day one. Either way, they are the kinda folks I like to avoid. Is that the wrong attitude for me to have?The ubiquitous Joseph Gordon Levitt plays Lyle, a teenager who has been sent to a juvenile mental hospital because he cracked open the skull of a kid who taunted him. While I would usually say the kid deserved it, it becomes clear that Lyle has too much aggression crammed inside him and has no way of controlling it other than the occasional blind rage or makeshift mosh-pit.While in the hospital he makes pals (and some enemies) with a fragile Native American kid, a no-confidence girl and another boy with manic depression (oh, sorry...'Bi-polar disorder'). It's nothing particularly astonishing but it's the commitment to acting and making it all seem as real as possible that makes it so watchable. This is helped by director Jordan Melamed's documentary style and hard close-ups of actors without make up and with their honest faces and zits.There's more honesty and realism in the fighting too, which does occur at regular intervals and somehow seems more engaging than in action movies. I myself have pulverised people (who I hated and thought really deserved it) into the dirt only to feel huge guilt as they look up at me all bloodied and broken, their eyes watering. I assume so many of these angry teenagers put on this act of aggression and being hard to hide how sensitive they really are. It's not a big revelation I know, but it's very well done in the film.In the end it doesn't do much else than offer a balanced view of such kids. Not everyone has the power to turn their rage off, not all parents are going to be wonderful. But who says you are any better? Maybe we could all get along better if everyone admits that they could be a better person.