It’s not often that I go into a movie and have my expectations completely shattered. I went into Hesher knowing that it would be stupid, but hoping that I would get a movie that was funny-stupid rather than stupid-stupid. The most I was hoping for is that it would be an amusing diversion that was funny on first viewing, but that would look stupider and stupider the more times you were exposed to it, like a Napoleon Dynamite. At worst I thought it might be a flat on its face failure with a broadly dumb character begging for our attention its entire runtime, like a Nacho Libre. How pleased was I, then, to learn that Hesher is not just legitimately hilarious, it’s a legitimately good film? Super pleased. With an explosive punch, director Spencer Susser has gone from somebody I’ve never heard of before to a filmmaker that I’m keeping my eye on.
Hesher is the story of a coming of age young lad named T.J. Forney (Devin Brochu). He hasn’t had such a great year. He’s got a cast on his arm, there are bullies picking on him at school, and he keeps wiping out on his bike. Oh yeah, and his mom died in a car accident leaving his father in a catatonic stupor of depression and medication, and forcing him to live in his slightly senile grandma’s house. That’s probably affecting him somewhat too. It’s in the midst of this sorry state of affairs that T.J. meets Hesher (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a metalhead drifter currently living in an unfinished house on a construction site. When T.J. throws a rock through a plate glass window, drawing the attention of the site security and flushing Hesher out of his home, things really start to get interesting for the little guy. It starts with Hesher showing up randomly in strange places and staring at him menacingly. Things then escalate to Hesher showing up inside his grandma’s house, stripping down to his underwear, and planting himself firmly on the couch in the living room. T.J. is too young and stupid to call the cops, his dad is too zoned out to question Hesher’s presence, and his grandma just seems to be happy to have someone else to cook for; so suddenly they have a new roommate. And in true, wacky, unwanted roommate movie fashion, everybody is going to learn a whole lot about living by the end of the film.
As a whole, Hesher is a very grounded story about real people who are in real pain. Their lives aren’t played for laughs, and what they’re going through is actually really effective drama. But Hesher the character isn’t a person at all. There’s nothing realistic or normal about his portrayal. Hesher is a myth, a legend, a personification of the destructive force of nature. He’s Anton Chigurh, Keyser Söze, heck; he’s Paul frigging Bunyan. We don’t know how he came to be or why he is the way he is, probably he has always just existed. When the first young pyromaniac melted an ant with a magnifying glass, Hesher was there. When the first drunk metalhead puked from head banging too hard, Hesher was there. He’s all long hair, bad tattoos, and body odor, here to destroy everything in his path. The only thing this movie needed to push it over the top was a dramatic speech from Michael Caine talking about how some men just want to watch the world burn. Hesher is the reactionary element. He enters a stagnant situation and mixes things up so we can have a movie. Theoretically there could be a whole series of Hesher films where he shows up in people’s lives, changes them, and then vanishes forever.
This movie wouldn’t work at all without Gordon-Levitt’s performance. In the wrong hands Hesher the character would have come off like a stupid gimmick. As played by Gordon-Levitt he has the potential to become a screen icon, an original character on the level of Captain Jack Sparrow, who will go down as being one of the defining creations of this decade. JGL is like a Shaman here, putting you under his spell and guiding you through a fever trance with his performance as your lead. Everything that Hesher does is juvenile nonsense, and yet he keeps you glued to his every action as if he were a wise prophet. Every time he sets something on fire you believe it must be for the greater good. Every time he gets mad and smashes something you can see the wisdom behind his actions. And yet, there’s clearly no motivating factor to what he does other than hormones and stupidity. Hesher isn’t even pure ID on display; he’s the ID of a psychopath. If you were to give into every subconscious whim, every base instinct that you have, without hesitation, you still wouldn’t be as awful a person as Hesher. He’s a real turd of a guy. But his lack of a filter works the other way too. When he does naturally have a sweet thought it comes out just as raw and honest as all of the terribly offensive things he says. And often he mixes the two sentiments together in a crazy monologue that doesn’t really make any sense but manages to hit you right in your heart anyway. Spending time with Hesher is a strangely affecting experience.
And the rest of the cast does a good job too. You can never really tell how a child actor is going to transition into adulthood. Just because they can play a snotty little fidgety kid doesn’t mean that they are going to be able to play an adult later in life. Plus you never know how ugly they’re going to get once they hit puberty. But Brochu is great as the cute little snotty, fidgety kid here. There’s no telling what the future holds for him, but in the present he is a great child actor. Rain Wilson plays the father, and I can easily say that this is my favorite performance that I’ve seen him give in a film. At the very least you have to admit that he grows a great depression beard. But, in addition to that, he’s got a face made for showing pain, and this is a role that utilizes such a skill to its fullest potential. The legendary Piper Laurie plays the grandmother, and her performance rivals JGL’s when it comes to charm. She’s so sweet and oblivious and sad that you want to reach into the screen and give her a hug every time that she appears on screen. Her world is crumbling down around her due to grief and depression and the only way she knows how to deal with it is by cooking people food and being nice, and the results are just heartbreaking to watch. Laurie has maybe never been better on screen. Natalie Portman shows up as a bookish grocery store clerk who catches T.J.’s eye and becomes his first real crush. Portman shrinks under giant framed glasses and vintage clothing, leaving almost no trace of her radiant star power shining through. Her relationship with the young T.J. is one of those where a young kid is first starting to have sexual feelings, but isn’t able to exactly process them; so things have to end tragically and painfully due the older party’s status as a fully formed, sexual being. Portman is charming during the early moments of their friendship when she is touched by the gift of an ice cream cone, and she’s gut punching during the later stages where misunderstandings tear her and the young boy apart. She’s done better work in higher profile performances, but it was interesting and pleasing to watch her do something different and smaller here.
Hesher
Hesher [Blu-ray]
