The main character in "hesher" enters the life of a family in mourning about as rolling more daring that opens the film "Sexy beast."
Hesher (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) has long black hair, an inclination for shirtlessness and a giant tattoo of the middle finger on his back. It led around in a beat-up black van blasting Metallica, smoking pot and do what he pleases. Its entries are announced comic with a loud guitar riff, metal.
When 13-year TJ (Devin Brochu) inadvertently that Hesher is a squatter in a condo built half, Hesher believes that just to move in a rundown suburban home where TJ lives with his father (Rainn Wilson) and grandmother (Piper Laurie).
The House is a malaise stupor, still mourns the death of the mother of the TJ two months earlier. The heavily medicated father is almost Catatonic. TJ is obsessed by keeping their red station wagon, wrecked the fatal accident which left him with a cast on his arm.
Protagonist of the film, TJ is a tough, fragmentary boy who is left in the vacuum of parental supervision fend by himself, including against a school bully (Brandon Hill). He is saved from a beating by a woman who interferes (Natalie Portman, who also co-produced). Awkwardly inserted into the film, it is a solitary cashier who, as everyone in "Hesher", could use a little fun.
Hesher is a kind of dementia wake-up call: catharsis by heavy metals. It is similar to the character of Brad Pitt in "fight Club": a grungy, Saracen force, violent life which is revels in shattering convention/h smoke to talk-it-out therapy. Hesher, too, seems almost a notional projection (what the film alludes to).
But undeniably turned on asphalt backstreets of Los Angeles, the film is intentionally not place anywhere specific. And its dull and grainy texture interiors seem more 70 than contemporary.
It is the first feature for Spencer Susser, the only American film in the Australian loose collective of filmmakers called Blue-language Films. Susser wrote the script with David Michod (the Director of last year's critical hit "animal kingdom"), from the story by Brian Charles Frank.
More coming through Susser is a talent to work with actors. The young Brochu is a honest 13 years, cycling around the world and wary to all adults. Laurie is touching sincere, even though it grows senile.
Gordon-Levitt, however, clearly is to have the most fun. He stomps around, almost never noticed those around him, except for a casual look sideways, sly coup or an average stare. By just his physical presence, Gordon-Levitt is almost unrecognizable - even when half naked.
The only exception is overexcited Wilson, one note performance as the father of mourning. The talented Wilson is not given enough range. It is also simply pathetic and nothing else.
As a few other blue-language films, "hesher" may be free in its violence. As a film, it is generally mangy and there are obvious missteps (as scene flashback snapshot to the car accident). But "hesher" nonetheless manages to be more emotionally true that the majority of the films coming out of Hollywood.
Warts and all, "hesher" is still a good shot in the arm.
"Hesher", a Newmarket Films release, is rated r for disturbing violent behaviour, sexual content including graphic dialogue, pervasive language and the content of the drug - some in the presence of a child. Duration: 105 minutes. Two years and a half stars out of four.
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Motion Picture Association of America rating definitions:
G - general public. All ages admitted.
PG - Parental guidance suggested. Some elements may not be suitable for children.
PG - 13 - special Parental Guidance strongly suggested for children under 13 years old. Certain types of material may be inappropriate for young children.
R - restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
NC - 17 - person admitted less than 17 years.
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