Peer Validated

Pictured: Ryan Gosling battles Eddie Murphy for Oscar Gold.

Occasionally there are soundtracks that open your mind and heart to music that your friends have been listening to for years. It could be because you just haven’t listened that carefully before, or it could be because you are a giant prick (this is usually my case), but you just can’t get behind (insert band) for whatever reason until they are showcased in such a heartbreakingly beautiful way that it just isn’t possible to ignore them anymore. What “Friday Night Lights” did for Explosions in the Sky, “Half Nelson” does for Broken Social Scene.

Yeah, I get it. They’re good. I’m sorry, I was wrong. Anyway, let’s not start this off on the wrong foot. Moving on.

Half Nelson is the story of a crack head history teacher who listens to awesome music, teaches kids about the theory of dialectics, and generally has cool facial hair/dance moves. What carries Gosling through the movie is an amazing soundtrack that consists of about 75% indie rock, 15% hip hop and 10% folk. It totally works. When Rosie Greer’s “It’s alright to cry” plays as Gosling has yet another awkward experience with his parents, you’re there rolling your eyes. When Billy Bragg yelps as Gosling sidles up to a bar, you feel it with all the drunkeness and freedom that the song intends. The climax of the movie comes with Broken Social Scene’s “Shampoo Suicide”, and it couldn’t feel more appropriate than if it had actually been written for Half Nelson. For real, it’s in the top 10 movie moments of all time.

What really put it over the top for me was the re-recording of, “Lover’s Spit” by BSS. Where the original one was more driving, more forced; this recording features a minimal piano arrangement with Leslie Feist crooning her way into a melancholy stupor. When the drums finally come in, it’s already too late, you’re in for an inch, in for a mile.