Over the GW NYTimes review

[Rachael]

http://movies2.nytimes.com/2007/06/27/m ... ref=movies

Free Will, Held Hostage for Years in a Zealous War on Drugs

The war on drugs may have temporarily lost ground to the war on terror, but the rehab drama is here to stay. “Over the G W,” Nick Gaglia’s lean yet harrowing dramatization of his own experiences with drug rehabilitation in the late 1990s, follows a troubled brother and sister (George Gallagher and Kether Donohue) as they are removed from their Bronx home and committed to a New Jersey treatment center by their well-meaning parents.

As an expected 30-day stay stretches to two years, the siblings are systematically brainwashed into a state of abject fear by cultlike staff members and the center’s menacing director (Albert Insinnia). Imprisoned and physically abused, the inmates are encouraged to inform on their erstwhile “druggie friends” and persuaded of their inability to survive outside the clinic. These scenes, remarkable in their restraint, strikingly capture the gradual erosion of free will and the seductiveness of tipping from rebellion to compliance.

Interweaving gritty black-and-white with saturated color — a sickly yellow-green for inside the center and throbbing reds and blues outside — “Over the G W” is a disturbing look at reprogramming that masquerades as rehabilitation. Having been forced to drink the Kool-Aid, Mr. Gaglia has produced a work that’s as much an act of emesis as of filmmaking.

OVER THE G W

Opens today in Manhattan.

Written, produced, directed and edited by Nick Gaglia; director of photography, Mr. Gaglia; music by John Presnell and Will Di Martino; released by Seventh Art Releasing. At the Two Boots Pioneer Theater, 155 East Third Street, at Avenue A, East Village. Running time: 76 minutes. This film is not rated.

WITH: George Gallagher (Tony Serra), Kether Donohue (Sofia Serra), G. R. Johnson (Mr. Morris), Albert Insinnia (Dr. Hiller), Michael Mathis (Joe), Justin Swain (James) and Jessika Graff (Jeanie).



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Since my commentary wasn't acceptable to some....

Rachael

[Anonymous]

Personally I liked your own opinion better than this newspaper person who just generalizes and doesn't talk about it with emotion. I know I can't be the only one who appreciated your review. Ignore the posters who say otherwise. There are a lot of boys who post here with mommy issues, and like to call girls names and put them down in order to feel superior. I'm sure other people have noticed this general disrespect for woman at this forum. Don't take it personally, the little boys are sad mommy didn't pay attention to them.

[psy]

Personally I liked your own opinion better than this newspaper person who just generalizes and doesn't talk about it with emotion. I know I can't be the only one who appreciated your review. Ignore the posters who say otherwise. There are a lot of boys who post here with mommy issues, and like to call girls names and put them down in order to feel superior. I'm sure other people have noticed this general disrespect for woman at this forum. Don't take it personally, the little boys are sad mommy didn't pay attention to them.

There was one poster who was being a complete asshole...  Rachael knows people liked what she had to say, and so did Nick Gaglia himself, I happen to know for a fact.

[Rachael]

No worries, I'm not upset about it. As I said to psy, if creepy stalker staff and my own programmie mother can't get to me, no little troll's gonna do it.

Rachael