Ryan Gosling plays a young, white, middle school teacher on crack in the ghetto quite well, and the story flows with a welcome performance by newcomer Shareeka Epps, but you had better be able to embrace the most common style of indie filmmaking (handheld camerawork, moments that are supposed to be really intense because we’re supposed to see what they’re really saying to each other through obscure dialogue, etc) to like it.

All the same, it’s a solid rental in a video store full of new releases like “Open Water 2” and “Farce of the Penguins,” so maybe you should just check it out.