Hesher

Directed by: Spencer Susser

Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt & Natalie Portman

Hesher tells the story of TJ and his father Paul. TJ and his father have been struggling with the recent death of TJ’s mother. The two of them have moved into Paul’s mother’s house and they have started attending grief counseling sessions. After TJ has a random run in with the transient/metalhead/drunk Hesher, TJ cannot get rid of him. Hesher starts showing up at TJ’s school and soon he moves in with them. TJ’s grandmother, unaware of what is going on and Paul being too depressed to do anything about it, let Hesher stay. It just so happens, even though his methods are greatly flawed, Hesher just might be able to bring this family back together.

The relationships the characters share don’t really seem that believable and the situations they get into are really hard to guess what direction they are going to take. However, the movie greatly benefits from this because it keeps the viewer interested and guessing why are these characters spending time together and what is going to be their actions throughout every scene.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt has always been one of my favorite actors, but I thought the casting choice of Gordon-Levitt as Hesher was kind of weird. Gordon-Levitt did a good job of portraying Hesher, but he really didn’t give off that bad ass vibe that a character like Hesher should have. Rainn Wilson played Paul and I am used to seeing him play quirky characters, but I thought he did a good job portraying a depressed and lost individual. I thought Natalie Portman was fun in this movie for the fact that her character was kind of portrayed as a normal everyday Jane Doe. Even though her character was not meant to be attractive, I still found her very pretty. I don’t know anything about Devin Brochu, the actor that played TJ, but he did a really good job being a child actor playing a role that ended up being pretty emotionally heavy.

The soundtrack was kind of fun as songs from Motorhead and Metallica occasionally accompanied different scenes. One scene was fun when Hesher decides to do donuts in his van in a random parking lot to the circle pit part of some song.

I know Hesher was billed as a comedy, but after viewing it, I would call it a drama more than anything. Hesher is definitely an anti-hero that I think will win over most viewers. I think Hesher would actually benefit from a prequel, so we could know more about how Hesher became Hesher.

7 out of 10
Trailer for Hesher: