Yes, there are the usual lessons learned, but the movie also speaks the truth about kids who need to lash out but only end up harming each other and themselves.
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05/22/03
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Manic (2003)
69
%
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Reviews Counted:58
Fresh:40
Rotten:18
Average Rating:6.4/10
Consensus: A well-acted drama about trouble teens.
Theatrical Release:Apr 25, 2003 Limited
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
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Reviews for Manic
While it neither succeeds nor satisfies as drama, it's a great calling card for the actors involved, principally Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
05/22/03
Top CriticIt's too painful and intimate to let you keep its subjects at a safe distance, as most mental illness films do. That, of course, is the point.
05/22/03
Top CriticThe movie works only to the extent you get involved with each kid's efforts or inability to adjust to the traumas of his past.
05/21/03
Click to read the article
05/17/03
It's not that the film has much to say about teen mental illness, but that it creates a world of people about whom we suddenly care.
05/16/03
The texture of "Manic" feels honest and the chemistry of the kids is well observed, but even the modest breakthroughs are dramatic conventions that favor the symbolic over the genuine.
05/16/03
Moviegoers of the world unite! Stand up and tell those indie filmmakers who continue to abuse us with ShakiCam shots, blurring pans and out-of-focus films that we'll seek them out and throw up all over them.
05/15/03
The film’s blurry camerawork, jumpy editing, and oversaturated hues are annoying and distracting.
05/15/03
McMurphy lolls in his grave.
05/14/03
A riveting troubled teens story that has the unvarnished poignance of first-rank docus (e.g. Streetwise, Decline of Western Civilization III, etc.) on similar thematic turf.
05/14/03
Top CriticClick to read the article
05/14/03
Really just a bleaker variant of 'The Breakfast Club.'
05/13/03
The acting here sustains and at times even elevates this material, a self-styled teenage version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest comprised of elements both good and also not quite fully formed.
05/12/03
Made with sensitivity and obvious good intentions, Manic still feels like a lecture to be endured rather than enjoyed.
05/10/03
Absorbing and occasionally disturbing film.
05/09/03
Top CriticDoesn't garner the sympathy you would expect (maybe because the troubled youth come across as more mouthy than troubled)...Extreme Dazed and Sedated
05/09/03
It's a serious, effective first film that deserves your attention, even if it isn't especially fun to watch.
05/09/03
Call it a well-meaning failure.
05/09/03
The group-talk and anguished groping feel true, as does David's frustrations with the kids.
05/08/03
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