I’ll be honest. The first time I watched “Hesher,” I was a little disappointed. It’s not really the movie’s fault. I had built it up to be this amazingly great movie that got the shaft (which made me like it more) that it probably couldn’t live up to my expectations. I guess, I was hoping for more Hesher (the person not the movie) shenanigans ….or something. Upon watching it the second time, I liked it more. Mainly because I knew what I was in for, so I could appreciate the film for what it was. Also, I think I’m better at estimating a movie the second time around. This has happened with many movies. Especially movies that the world or myself has built up. I chose “Hesher” for a few reasons. One is that the aforementioned second time of viewing came last week, making it was fresh in my mind. Two, it had Piper Laurie in it, just like last week’s movie “Eulogy”. And three, it was similar to last weeks movie “Eulogy”. It’s also very different. The only real thematic similarity is that both stories deal with the loss of a parent. The real similarity is that they’re both movies in which the filmmaker basically did everything right and yet still failed. It’s a great lesson for any future filmmaker and it’s especially true now. You could do everything right and things won’t work out for you. That’s not a message that people tell you enough but it’s something that I’ve come to understand more and more as I grow up.
How right did Spencer Susser (the writer/director) do things? Well, let’s see here. The title character is played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who just so happened to be in “Inception” right around when this came out and had just been in “500 Days of Summer.” Regardless of what you think of those movies, they were a big deal. Not only is Joseph Gordon-Levitt in this film, but he does an awesome job. He completely transforms himself into this character. It’s not just the way he talks. It’s the way he walks, eats, washes clothes, smokes cigarettes, and drinks beer. He seems like a completely different person. Just look at the differences in these photos.
Hesher is someone so simple and yet so complex that spends a good amount of time being violently energetic. It’s an Oscar worthy performance – if the Oscar‘s were into that type of thing. OK, so that’s just one person. Who else is in this thing? I don’t know, how about Natalie “g*ddamned” Portman (I’ll still love you when no one else does Natalie Portman – in a non-creepy way)? Quite possibly the most respected popular young actress there is.
This was right about her “Black Swan” Oscar win which is also a good thing. We also have Piper Laurie as already mentioned as well as Dwight Schrute himself (Rainn Wilson). Throw in Devon Brochu who plays the main character, TJ, doing a great job as a very troubled little kid dealing with a lot of heavy stuff. That’s a pretty solid nucleus. It could be possible that this collection of talent went wasted and nobody liked it. But that’s not what happened. It was accepted to a major film festival (a little something called Sundance) and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize. On top of that, the movie was blessed with the all important “buzz.” So how did it fail? Because we live in a world that is bullsh*t for the most part. Although it was seen as being a great piece of work, distributors didn’t know how to market it and the project went into limbo. Distributors, from what I can tell, have absolutely no imagination. These are the same retards who also didn’t know how to market “Inception” (JGL must have been hearing this nonsense a lot at one point in time). Eventually, “Hesher” made it into select theaters with limited advertising and did next to nothing. You can now catch it on the movie networks and Netflix….youtube as long as this link stays active.
And that’s how a movie that could have been the next hit turned into nothing. Inspiring, no? This probably doesn’t happen to this movie if it came out 5 years earlier. The last few years have been death to indie films. Good thing we have “Green Lantern” and “Battleship” to enjoy. Ugh.
The story. TJ is a little kid that has lost him mom. He lives with his Dad (Wilson) and Grandma (Laurie). His Dad is handling things horribly and never seems to leave the couch or bother shaving, except for grieving group meetings that TJ hates.
TJ’s being bullied at school and having an all around sh*t time. Then Hesher forces his way into his life when TJ accidentally screws Hesher over. Hesher is just there causing problems at first. He doesn’t help TJ out at all. In a lot of ways he makes his life more difficult while doling out crude metaphors that initially make little sense or have little relevance but eventually become the emotional center of the movie.
One day while TJ is being bullied, Nicole (Portman) saves him. He develops a crush on her that Hesher only teases TJ about. In Hesher’s mind, he’s probably trying to help TJ but they’re such different people it doesn’t work out that way. Hesher’s the banging in the bathroom type while TJ is still a romantic mainly because he’s so young. The movie’s really about TJ and his father dealing with the loss of TJ’s mother. Eventually, Hesher helps them with this in the only way that he can. Along the way, Hesher is awesomely destructive and in your face rude (his giant tattoo of the middle finger kind of says it all). There’s a solid, salt of the earth type of guy in there somewhere buried under ultra teenaged angst that he never grew up out of.
The material inherently lends itself to good acting. The movie is very sad. It’s also raw carnage at times. Both are more interesting than most movies. As I said in the beginning, I was disappointed upon first viewing because it’s a bit slow. Parts of it are slow, other parts are awesomely fast.
I actually appreciated the slow parts more the second time around. The art direction is very, very drab and run down. I’m still not sure when this movie was supposed to take place. No one drives a car that’s newer than the 90’s but maybe that just goes to show they’re status. None of the characters have any clothes that don’t look like they came from the goodwill. The cinematography style is pretty good. It’s very Indie and comes courtesy of the director’s brother (I think). The editing is solid and probably benefited from having the director in the cutting room as per the credits. Another thing about the credits – man did they have a lot of producers. Like a lot. The music is periodically death metal, used very effectively.
In summation, it’s a very indie/arthouse movie that probably appeals to a lot of people who don’t typically like arthouse movies. In a way that’s a genius move. On the other hand, that’s probably what ended up screwing the movie in distribution. Remember kids, if you’re going to try something different – be prepared to fail miserably. These days, people want what they know. And it’s a bizarre twist of luck that will cause a movie to become a bonafide “it” movie – whatever that means.
revolproductions 