Half Nelson <$>— Forget what you think you know about Ryan Gosling, the pretty star of the weepy romance The Notebook<$>. He has fierce talent and far more darkness and depth than that chick flick would suggest. (Gosling also starred in the acclaimed 2002 movie The Believer<$>, as a Jewish youth living a secret life as a skinhead. You might have missed it: The movie never made it into theatres and instead aired on Showtime.) Here he plays an idealistic junior high school teacher living a contradictory, self-destructive double life. By day, he uses creative methods to instruct his students in inner-city Brooklyn about history; by night, he uses crack cocaine, or whatever other drug he can get his hands on. Day and night start bleeding dangerously into each other, but he finds a vague ray of hope in an unexpected friendship with Drey (the astonishingly assured Shareeka Epps), a troubled student who also plays on his basketball team. It all could have been overly feel good, a retread of Finding Forrester, but director Ryan Fleck and his co-writer, Anna Boden, present the material with a bracing realism that keeps the film raw and grounded. R for drug content throughout, language and some sexuality. 107 minutes. Three and a half stars. — Christy Lemire<$>

Step Up — Take Fame<$> and suck out all the sex and nudity, take Romeo and Juliet and drain it of the preteen suicide and iambic pentameter, and you have this thoroughly formulaic but mildly enjoyable dance movie. Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan star as a tough kid from a Baltimore foster home and a privileged ballerina who are unexpectedly drawn to each other through their shared love of dance. The two end up fusing styles and falling for each other while working together on a routine at a prestigious arts school. It’s totally mindless summer eye candy: Everyone’s great-looking, everyone’s preternaturally talented. This is the first feature from choreographer-turned-director Anne Fletcher, so at least the dance sequences are refreshing and high-energy. That’s more than we can say for the script, which was co-written by Duane Adler — who also wrote Save the Last Dance, yet another film that Step Up <$>so obviously resembles. PG-13 for thematic elements, brief violence and innuendo. 98 minutes. Two stars. — Christy Lemire<$>

Zoom<$> — Tim Allen stars in this family friendly comedy about a superhero who’s been drained of all his powers. The movie itself apparently was made by people drained of all their creativity. Zoom<$> has plenty of energy and visual effects but not a single original idea in its spandex-clad head. Allen’s Captain Zoom is trying to live a normal life but must return to the saving-the-world game, like the characters in the vastly superior, Oscar-winning animated movie The Incredibles. He’s asked to teach what he knows to a bunch of misfit kids with unwanted powers (strength, invisibility, telepathy, etc.) which, um, sounds exactly like the X-Men <$>premise. And the lessons take place in a colourful, gadget-heavy, scientific world hidden within the desert, sorta like the Spy Kids movies. Allen plays the role with a smart-alecky cynicism that at times makes the material unexpectedly palatable, and Kate Mara (Heath Ledger’s daughter in Brokeback Mountain<$>) is completely charismatic as one of the heroes-in-training. But Allen best sums up Chevy Chase’s presence when he takes one look at him and goes: “Wow, you got old.” PG for brief rude humour, language and mild action. 83 minutes. One and a half stars. — Christy Lemire