Manic (2001)

• Year: 2001
• Released: 23 May 2003
• Country: United States
• Adwords: 1 nomination
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0252684/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/manic
• Metacritics:
• Available in: 720p,
• Language: English
• MPA Rating: R
• Genre: Drama
• Runtime: 100 min
• Writer: Michael Bacall, Blayne Weaver
• Director: Jordan Melamed
• Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Bacall, Zooey Deschanel
• Keywords: depression, child abuse, group therapy, mental institution, juvenile delinquent, mental illness,

	7.2/10
	60/100

Manic Storyline

Lyle Jensen is subject to sudden and violent outbursts, and he is committed to the juvenile wing of the Northwood Mental Institution. Several other youths are there with a variety of serious problems. Lyle interacts with other patients and staff on a human, and sometimes not so human level. The psychological problems of the patients also forms the fabric by which we see what’s right with them, and what’s wrong with the society that affects them.—Scott from Milwaukee, WI, USA

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Manic Movie Reviews

An open examination of teenagers with destructive mental illness.

An open examination of teenagers with destructive mental illness, societies need to create and control them, and their own quest for control in their lives. The pace is consistent, and the direction is strong and steady as the audience is made to feel like they are directly observing the story unfold. Teenagers who are real patients for the same kind of mental illness helped out in the coaching of the actors which made the improvised work that much more stark. Digital film making heightens the sense of reality since it is used in a documentary style within a good set.

The casting was excellent as each member of the ensemble portrayed their character with depth and individual motivation, and they all interacted believably.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Lyle Jensen sets himself apart from all his previous roles. His portrayal of a disconnected youth full of vague rage and a low threshold for violence gave him many subtle challenges to which he arose. His subconscious search for meaning is the pavement upon which our journey is taken. Don Cheadle is one of the best yet most under appreciated actors there are. His conflicted Dr. Monroe keeps the balance as he tries to manipulate these kids to self control as he precariously avoids the demons of his own past. Michael Bacall plays Lyle’s institutional friend Chad. He is great as the basically nice guy with the realistically subtle bipolar disorder who has his own conflicted agenda. Zooey Deschanel’s Tracy is a depressed teen with crushingly low self esteem. Her beauty and kindness are in contrast to the others as we struggle to understand her cause for being committed. Sara Rivas maintains balance well as she plays the wannabe hardass Sara who is recovering from severe drug addiction. Sara is destructive to herself, but she does act somewhat as the nurturer for the other patients, especially the meek Tracy. Cody Lightning is compelling as the quiet and messed up Kenny who is also the youngest patient in the wing because he is so messed up. Elden Henson is successful in making the audience completely hate his character Mike. He has problems similar to Lyle plus he behaves ghetto to compensate for his self identity. The Lyle versus Mike conflict is the driving point of the story because they can’t escape that what they hate about each other is that within the other they see themselves.

This film describes mental illness for youths in a raw upfront manner that Hollywood could never handle, yet it is to be seen.

As Well-Constructed As A Poem

There wasn’t a soul working on this film who did not produce brilliant, genuinely communicative work that demonstrates exactly what the art of filmmaking is at its very best. And it was only the very clear and obvious display of such tight creative genius at work that kept reminding me that this was actually a film instead of real life recorded at an institution by an inmate with an ever-intrusive video camera. In my life I have known youths suffering from the uncontrollable volatility of a rage as extreme as shown in the film, and just as justifiable as their defensive reaction to the powerful external forces that have waged against them their whole lives. When any biological creature, animal or human, is backed helpless and wounded into a corner, what solution is there other than to bare one’s fangs and claws and fight to the death? What can really be done to help people like that get out of their trap, to reverse their ever-spinning deeper into themselves until they have irretrievably locked themselves into madness? From this film I can see why the same word, madness, is used to describe both anger and mental illness.

Lyle, the lead character vividly realized by actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, was certainly mad, although his face ingeniously was always comported into an expression of a questioning sadness and resignation, like he was rather surprised that life had turned out to be this way. And he was violent, although for those who are squeamish, his violence was never really clearly shown face-on, but was revealed in an almost subliminal way via quick frames that suggested a fiery atmosphere of angry voices, relentless punches, and splatters of blood–this is the world he has lived in externally and now it demonizes his inner world. And the actor, even when at rest, continued to maintain the demeanor of a coiled spring so tightly wound that it was a wonder his body didn’t implosively burst or rip itself apart like a case of tetanus. And yet he was entirely sympathetic, and the groundwork for that sympathy was laid the very first moment when we met him, getting his wounds dressed in a medical clinic. The camera moved behind him and casually revealed him sitting there in a hospital gown that had fallen open in the rear, revealing a vulnerable, skinny back its spinal cord nodules, a smooth back that perhaps his mother when he was a baby or a current lover ought to have soothingly and reassuringly rubbed, if only there had ever been someone who had actually loved him.

I wondered at an institution that so casually mixed up different patients with such diverse problems–the criminally violent with those who cut only themselves, or the changeably manic with those who have an almost invisible self-esteem, or, the relentlessly demeaning with those who are deeply suffering to the point of catatonia or austism. And yet it soon became clear that beyond the realistic and compassionate guidance of a truly dedicated counselor (played to standing-ovation intensity by Don Cheadle), the only hope for them was to be stimulated into opening their hearts to each other and in this way discovering meaning beyond their personal demons.

The patients in the adult ward separated from the youths by a chain-link fence seemed to be irretrievably lost; the freedom of the crows that soon became a symbol of flight out their tight corners for the youths, became only a mocking crowing absorbed by one of the adults. Madness in this institution metaphorically became a clear, legible story, such as the beautiful girl who hid herself behind black lipstick and heavy black eye-liner, or the boy who relentlessly tried to build a house of cards, and yet never seemed to manage to set up the first three.

Without a doubt one of the best scenes was a spontaneous mosh pit that erupted around the playing of a cassette of the Deftones. As I am at least one whole generation older than kids who would smash around in a mosh pit, it might be easy for me to be repelled by this kind of music and scene, and instead I am fascinated and can see how perfectly expressive and either dangerously visceral or benevolently cathartic such music really is and this scene in the film, which to me was like a ballet, was enlightening on many levels. Ultimately, it is clear that the suffering of these youths in the mental institution is metaphorical of the suffering that we all experience in real life and demands a relief of some kind–rage against the machine, indeed.

All in all, Manic is a movie for those who truly care about the craft of film, care about collaborative, creative skill that can come from a work of the heart, care about humanity’s relief from suffering, and care about compassionate answers for otherwise seemingly unsolvable problems. For all these reasons, I highly recommend this film.

The mental institution

The group of teen agers that are staying in an institution for troubled youths, come from all kinds of backgrounds and problems. All of them are the byproducts of a society in which parents have failed these kids in one way or another. Each one of the kids in the story could have never landed in this private mental facility with the kind of positive nurturing that responsible parents give their children.

It is indeed a motley crew we meet. When we first see Lyle, he is seen in an incident where he beats another teen with a bat and almost kills him. Tracy has been raped and screams at night. Kenny, the sensitive boy, sharing a room with Lyle, has been molested by his step-father. Michael, the rap fan, thinks and acts as though he was black. Chad, who soon will be leaving the place is a boy that should not be released to the outside world.

We get to hear all their stories as the well intentioned Dr. Monroe guide them thorough sessions of group therapies. They all bring their own baggage to the encounters and don’t open up in the way the therapist would like them to, yet, it’s clear these sessions have a profound effect on all of them.

The film, which was shown on cable recently, deserves an audience as its director, Jordan Melamed shows an affinity for the material written for the movie by Michael Bacall, who also plays Chad, and Blayne Weaver. The director and the cinematographer, Nick Hay, captured nuanced performances by everyone in the cast. The film utilizes the close up technique to emphasize all the emotions running at any given moment among the inmates.

Don Cheadle, a magnificent actor, plays Dr. Monroe with conviction. Mr. Cheadle deserves credit for always making the best of all his characters he has played, as he brings a dignity and vulnerability to his roles. Joseph Gordon Levitt is also another reason for watching the film. His Lyle is a study in contrasts. Zooey Deschanel makes a good impression with her Tracy. Michael Bacall is intense as Chad. Elden Henson, always a good addition to any films makes Michael, a bully, work. Cody Lightning is also good as the taciturn Kenny.

This is a film posing some serious issues and makes the viewer think. It also shows a good director at work, Jordan Melamed, who will go to bigger and better things, no doubt.