Post by StevePulaski on Sept 21, 2011 16:25:06 GMT -5
Joseph Gordon Levitt as Hesher.
Rating: ★★★½
Urban Dictionary describes a "hesher" as a rocker, with greasy hair who lives in his parents' basement. Fortunately, the film Hesher doesn't stop at just that, but expands the character of the same name to the point where we don't consider him a loser but a strangely placed hero caught up in a bad lifestyle.
The character himself is played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who steps about as far away from his 2009 masterpiece (500) Days of Summer, gives an electrifying performance. A young boy who recently lost his mother named T.J. (Brochu) discovers the man when he throws a rock at his window out of frustration one day. After that, T.J.'s life is changed. He begins seeing Hesher everywhere. And one day, he comes to live with T.J., his depressed father (Wilson), and his grandmother (Laurie).
Hesher begins putting T.J. on the fast-track of a hoodlum, and starts getting him into trouble he doesn't need. His homelife is hazardous, Hesher is deadly, but sometimes caring and helpful in his crude manner, and flashbacks of his mom's death keep coming up out of the blue.
The score shocked me the most. In most films, the sad part is made even sadder by playing a sad tune or sympathetic background music. If something is sad in Hesher, the film plays heavy rock music to coincide with the definition of the word. It's a unique little experiment, and gives a feeling to a film I've never experienced before.
T.J. begins to develop a crush on a supermarket checker girl played, once more, by Natalie Portman who has also done No Strings Attached, Your Highness, and Thor this past year. This is probably the biggest leap from Black Swan you can get, and its easily the best thing out of those four films. Hesher is undeniably entertaining in the strangest of ways. It's downbeat, but lively. Sad, yet funny. And dark, but delightful.
The fun stems from the picture itself. Just from the screenplay, written by director Spencer Susser and David Michôd respectfully, you can tell it was fun just to write the idea of an underprivileged adult who goes around freeloading off of an emotionally damaged family and destroys property for no reason. There is one scene where Hesher pours gasoline all over a car, lights a cigarette, and blows it up. It begs an explanation - and if Rubber's, the film about a killer tire, preachy narrator could show up in this film he'd likely say this film exercises the philosophy of "no reason."
Why films like this can't get a wide release, but three overly-loud, obnoxious, cloying films like Transformers can get made cements the fact that people are more amused by mind-numbing action sequences than actual film-making. I hope one day, someone sees a film like Hesher by accident and then see what a good film looks like.
Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Devin Brochu, Rainn Wilson, and Natalie Portman. Directed by: Spencer Susser.