Dan Dunn (Ryan Gosling) is a middle school teacher so passionate about what he’s teaching that his students sit attentively listening to him rant about civil rights. And these are inner city school kids, not private school flunkeys. Dunn even coaches the girls’ basketball team, standing on the sidelines yelling at the ref and giving everything his soul can muster to the kids because it is the kids he believes in most of all. During the day Dunn is a model teacher that doesn’t treat his kids like they are beneath him, but when he leaves work and heads for home he opens the door to another life altogether. Once he’s on his own Dunn pulls out the crack pipe and lives the life of an addict.

He thinks he has it all under control. He thinks he can separate his work life from his nightlife, but it doesn’t take long for one to creep into the other. When one of his students, Drey (Shareeka Epps) catches him on the bathroom floor with a pipe in his hand Dunn thinks he can hold it together, but this is the beginning of his decent. From this point on Dunn crosses the line between teacher and student that shouldn’t be crossed. He even barges in on Drey’s personal life, pushing her away from a family friend that happens to be his drug dealer.

Gosling did an amazing job of portraying the tortured teacher living a double life. He perfectly captured the subtle nuances of his characters personality illustrating the pain Dunn feels because of his inability to fix the problems he sees in the world around him, especially since he can’t even fix himself. Another surprise was the awe inspiring performance that Epps gives as the venerable Drey. Most students walking in on their teacher doing drugs would have ran for the hills and told the nearest adult about what they just saw, but Drey stuck with Dunn because in her life his problems weren’t far from normal.

Director Ryan Fleck and his creative partner Anna Boden made an amazing film. The only complaint I have is that the clips of historical events that accompanied the classroom scenes sometimes felt like filler, but those clips in no way distracted me from seeing the brilliance of the film as a whole.

Put this film in your rental queue because this is a killer film.