Joseph Gordon-Levitt (500 Days of Summer, Inception) plays the title character, a jail-tattooed, head-banging, juvie-zen-master who descends as a force of chaos upon an already chaotic family in Hesher.
Following the law of yin and yang, that is, “When things reach the extreme, they will turn around,” his forced illegal squatting provides an opportunity for the family to move on to catharsis and healing. Ultimately, it’s the story of what happens to boys when mom goes missing.
Intending to be more funny than sad, Hesher is more of a sad, bleak tale of American family dysfunction than writer-director Spencer Susser may have had in mind.
Full of indie-film silences, the whooshing of cars, and clocks ticking, the sad mood is offset by occasional ear-splitting metal music intended as comic relief. Punctuated also with various bodily-function noises and bouts of fever-pitch physical acting-out, it’s sometimes successful in being funny.
I rather enjoyed Hesher’s climbing a telephone pole in his tighty-whiteys, stealing the neighbor’s cable TV to watch some porn, and then fumbling the down-climb and belly-flopping into the neighbor’s yard.
I can’t figure out how Gordon-Levitt continues to get typecast like this, having started off his showbiz career as a mild-mannered alien kid in Third Rock from the Sun. I’m not sure this is the best use of his talent. He seems more like a sensitive musician type.
Natalie Portman is badly miscast as a checkout-counter nerdy girl. It’s never fun to see an Oscar-winner’s usual charisma and craft reduced to a bag of ticks (yes, that’s “ticks,” not “tricks”)
The real lead character is actually T.J., played by newcomer Devin Brochu, who will be a big star in about 10 years—the kid can act. Dad is played by Rainn Wilson of “The Office.” It’s always refreshing to see our clown-types play straight roles, as you feel you finally get to know the real them. He’s a nice man.
Hesher is sort of a dark, older-male, anti-role-model for T.J. and has a way of showing up right on time, to save the day. After the fifth or sixth time of getting your arm twisted around suspending your disbelief for this Wayne’s World “deus ex machina” business, you finally throw up your hands and say, “Fine.”
Where’s the redeeming value? It needs one, considering the excessive cursing. What’s the kid learning by Hesher vandalizing a bully’s property? That it’s okay to later threaten said bully with a pruning shears clamped on a sensitive part?
[etRating value=“ 1.5”]
Following the law of yin and yang, that is, “When things reach the extreme, they will turn around,” his forced illegal squatting provides an opportunity for the family to move on to catharsis and healing. Ultimately, it’s the story of what happens to boys when mom goes missing.
Intending to be more funny than sad, Hesher is more of a sad, bleak tale of American family dysfunction than writer-director Spencer Susser may have had in mind.
Full of indie-film silences, the whooshing of cars, and clocks ticking, the sad mood is offset by occasional ear-splitting metal music intended as comic relief. Punctuated also with various bodily-function noises and bouts of fever-pitch physical acting-out, it’s sometimes successful in being funny.
I rather enjoyed Hesher’s climbing a telephone pole in his tighty-whiteys, stealing the neighbor’s cable TV to watch some porn, and then fumbling the down-climb and belly-flopping into the neighbor’s yard.
I can’t figure out how Gordon-Levitt continues to get typecast like this, having started off his showbiz career as a mild-mannered alien kid in Third Rock from the Sun. I’m not sure this is the best use of his talent. He seems more like a sensitive musician type.
Natalie Portman is badly miscast as a checkout-counter nerdy girl. It’s never fun to see an Oscar-winner’s usual charisma and craft reduced to a bag of ticks (yes, that’s “ticks,” not “tricks”)
The real lead character is actually T.J., played by newcomer Devin Brochu, who will be a big star in about 10 years—the kid can act. Dad is played by Rainn Wilson of “The Office.” It’s always refreshing to see our clown-types play straight roles, as you feel you finally get to know the real them. He’s a nice man.
Hesher is sort of a dark, older-male, anti-role-model for T.J. and has a way of showing up right on time, to save the day. After the fifth or sixth time of getting your arm twisted around suspending your disbelief for this Wayne’s World “deus ex machina” business, you finally throw up your hands and say, “Fine.”
Where’s the redeeming value? It needs one, considering the excessive cursing. What’s the kid learning by Hesher vandalizing a bully’s property? That it’s okay to later threaten said bully with a pruning shears clamped on a sensitive part?
[etRating value=“ 1.5”]
