5/5 My favorite
  by B. Howard (california)
for once a movie that got what a mental health facility actually is like, this movie was right down to the core a real take on what its like, great movie!!

2/5 as expected...
  by geb (NJ, USA)
I purchased Manic after reading many decent reviews. After viewing the movie, I am somewhat disappointed. The movie started out kind of slow, though it was able to capture my attention later on and keep me watching. The dialogue was poorly written; it definitely could have been written better. The shaky camera work, highly contrasted shots, and unnecessarily prolonged close-ups were distracting. Overall, I'd say the movie was okay.

4/5 Good Flick
  by David A. Anderson (Laconia, NH)
This movie was great. Cheadle gives a good performance, and Zooey adds a nice touch, but the star, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, makes this movie great with his dedication to acting, and his stellar portrayal of a boy lost in his anger. I recommend, especially for and JGL fans

2/5 Gordon-Levitt and Cheadle tag-team, but still can't save this.
  by Robert P. Beveridge (Cleveland, OH)
Manic (Jordan Melamed, 2001)

As fond as I am of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, he couldn't save Jordan Melamed's first (and to date only) feature, Manic. I'm not sure anyone could have, save an editor with a much lighter touch than the one recruited to cut this film.

The story centers on Lyle (Gordon-Levitt), a teen who gets sent to a hospital's psycho ward after a violent episode during which he severely beat a fellow teen with a baseball bat. David Monroe (Don Cheadle), the doctor overseeing the ward, has a lot of patients with issues to work with, so once Lyle gets to the ward, the film shifts into ensemble mode. There's Chad (Michael Bacall, who also co-wrote the screenplay), an affable agoraphobic with whom Lyle quickly bonds; Kenny (Cody Lightning), Lyle's roommate, who's in for molestation; Sara (Sara Rivas), the goth with anger issues; Tracy (Zoeey Deschanel), the introvert working on her self-esteem; etc.

I'm pretty sure you can see the problem already-- cliché abounds in this film. But that might be forgivable (certainly, where this sort of thing is concerned, it's miles better than, say, Girl, Interrupted) if the movie actually told a coherent story. This one tries to, but fails so miserably I can only place the blame on an editor who was told, "this movie must be x number of minutes long. Make sure it gets there." There's a difference between the artistic creation of impressionism in film and just hacking out large pieces of character development, setting, scene, and anything not relating to plot (especially when the plot is so necessarily thin). As I said before, though, I'm just assuming; if the script was actually written this way, then the blame must be placed squarely on Bacall and co-writer Blayne Weaver, who have a lot to learn about that wonderful goblin known as continuity.

There are the bones of an excellent film here, but it never boils enough to really congeal into a soup. **

4/5 Realistic and never sensational
  by Jessica Lux (Rosamond, CA)
Manic follows juvenile psychiatric patient Lyle (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) to Los Angeles's Northward Mental Institution, where he is admitted after beating another student with a baseball bat during a fight. In a hauntingly realistic portrayal of mental turmoil, the movie follows the painstakingly slow (or non-existent) progress for Lyle, suicidal Tracy (Zooey Deschanel), self-injuring goth rocker Sara (Sara Rivas), bipolar rich kid Chad (Michael Bacall), and sexually abused Kenny (Cody Lightning). Don Cheadle portrays staff therapist Dr. Dave, a man who struggles against his own feelings of futility and ineffectiveness. The teens have angst, their families are near the breaking point, and those charged with fixing the out-of-control teens lack all the answers.

Director Jordan Melamed shot the film on hand-held digital video in an actual mental hospital, strongly adhering to the essential intentions of the Dogme 95 movement. As such, film is not a barrier between the viewer and the action on screen.

Manic is never sensationalist; rather, it uncovers truths that lurk in the lives of nearly all families. There are no trite life lessons, no jaw-dropping "crazy person" performances in hope of an Oscar nod, and the end isn't tied up with a big pretty bow. The movie does end with a sense of hope, not for banishing all trauma and difficulty, but for the ability to control and manage it within our lives.