Manic

Manic (2001) is Jordan Melamed's American indie drama, free to watch online on iFILM. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a teenager whose uncontrollable rage lands him not in prison but in a locked juvenile psychiatric ward.

Lyle is committed after beating a classmate half to death. Inside he meets a ward full of equally damaged kids — the abused, the violent, the ones with nowhere to go home to. Trying to reach them is therapist David, played by Don Cheadle with no illusions about quick fixes. Among the patients is a quiet girl, Tracy, in an early role for a very young Zooey Deschanel, well before her breakout years.

Melamed shot the whole thing on jittery handheld digital video, and that raw, documentary roughness is exactly what makes it hurt — no polish, just faces in close-up. Heavy but honest filmmaking about anger and the fight not to break. One for fans of early Gordon-Levitt and grainy American indie realism. Stream Manic online on iFILM.