Half Nelson

Dan Dunne, an idealistic inner-city junior high school teacher, inspires his 13 and 14-year-olds to examine everything from civil rights to Civil War with a new enthusiasm and teaches them how change works on both a historical and personal scale. Though Dan can get it together in the classroom, he spends his time outside school on the edge of consciousness. Dealing with a serious drug habit, Dan is a strung-out role model. He juggles his hangovers and his homework, keeping his lives precariously separated, until one of his troubled students, Drey catches him getting high after school. From this awkward beginning, Dan and Drey stumble into an unexpected friendship.