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Manic

  • 2001
  • R
  • 1h 40m
IMDb RATING
7.2/10
9.9K
YOUR RATING
Don Cheadle, Zooey Deschanel, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Manic (2001)
Trailer
Play trailer1:11
2 Videos
16 Photos
Drama

After attacking another player with a bat during baseball at school, Lyle's sent to the psych ward. He meets other teenagers with problems. Will group therapy help?After attacking another player with a bat during baseball at school, Lyle's sent to the psych ward. He meets other teenagers with problems. Will group therapy help?After attacking another player with a bat during baseball at school, Lyle's sent to the psych ward. He meets other teenagers with problems. Will group therapy help?

  • Director
    • Jordan Melamed
  • Writers
    • Michael Bacall
    • Blayne Weaver
  • Stars
    • Joseph Gordon-Levitt
    • Michael Bacall
    • Zooey Deschanel
  • See production, box office & company info
  • IMDb RATING
    7.2/10
    9.9K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Jordan Melamed
    • Writers
      • Michael Bacall
      • Blayne Weaver
    • Stars
      • Joseph Gordon-Levitt
      • Michael Bacall
      • Zooey Deschanel
    • 58User reviews
    • 37Critic reviews
    • 60Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 1 nomination

    Videos2

    Manic
    Trailer 1:11
    Watch Manic
    Why Nobody Thought Joseph Gordon-Levitt Could Be in Sundance Movies
    Clip 1:52
    Watch Why Nobody Thought Joseph Gordon-Levitt Could Be in Sundance Movies

    Photos16

    Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Manic (2001)
    Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Manic (2001)
    Zooey Deschanel in Manic (2001)
    Don Cheadle in Manic (2001)
    Don Cheadle in Manic (2001)
    Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Manic (2001)
    Don Cheadle, Zooey Deschanel, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Cody Lightning, and Sara Rivas in Manic (2001)
    Sara Rivas in Manic (2001)
    Michael Bacall, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Jordan Melamed in Manic (2001)
    Zooey Deschanel and Jordan Melamed in Manic (2001)
    Director Jordan Melamed and cast
    Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt at an event for Manic (2001)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Joseph Gordon-Levitt
    Joseph Gordon-Levitt
    • Lyle
    Michael Bacall
    Michael Bacall
    • Chad
    Zooey Deschanel
    Zooey Deschanel
    • Tracey
    Don Cheadle
    Don Cheadle
    • Dr. David Monroe
    Maggie Baird
    Maggie Baird
    • Rebecca
    Blayne Weaver
    Blayne Weaver
    • Charlie
    Lydell M. Cheshier
    • J.C.
    Roxie Fuller
    • Roxie
    Bree Nogueira
    • Bree
    Kathy Paradise
    • Nurse
    Elden Henson
    Elden Henson
    • Michael
    Cody Lightning
    Cody Lightning
    • Kenny
    Sara Rivas
    Sara Rivas
    • Sara
    Lauren Shubert
    • Lauren
    William Richert
    William Richert
    • Diego
    Ben Markham
    • Card Kid
    Travis Sutton
    • Eddie
    Nic Henley
    • Nic
    • Director
      • Jordan Melamed
    • Writers
      • Michael Bacall
      • Blayne Weaver
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Most of the extras in the movie were teenagers that had actually been in hospitals to treat depression.
    • Quotes

      Dr. David Monroe: Uh, I'm not gonna give you some bullshit hokey speech and tell you that if you come to some epiphany about your dad you're gonna make a break through and everything's gonna be pizza and blowjobs.

    • Connections
      Featured in WatchMojo: Top 10 Joseph Gordon-Levitt Performances (2015)
    • Soundtracks
      Track 01 from Selected Ambient Works Vol. 2
      (aka "Cliffs")

      Written by Richard D. James

      by Aphex Twin

    User reviews58

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    10/10
    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.
    helpful•62
    9
    • thomasdosborneii
    • May 10, 2003

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • May 23, 2003 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Manija
    • Filming locations
      • Camarillo, California, USA
    • Production companies
      • Manic LLC
      • Next Wave Films
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $69,958
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $7,628
      • Apr 27, 2003
    • Gross worldwide
      • $69,958
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 40 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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