Hesher

Take a good hard look. Yep, that's Joseph Gordon Levitt in what I think is one of his best roles. Let's face it, he did not need the role of Hesher to break out if you will. He is an indie god among actors and viewers alike. He can do whatever he wants and he will be respected. Hesher proves that. His character is one of the most vile people ever written. These people do exist, but with movies we like to be shown things that are sugar coated and not like the norm. He is a bitter young man, who hates everyone and everything. He speaks his mind, listens almost strictly to Metallica and He is also a pyroMANIAC. As impactful as Hesher is with everyone who is unlucky enough to meet him, the real story of this film is about a young boy named TJ Forney. TJ is  on the mend as is his father Paul (Rainn Wilson in his best role to date). They have just lost their wife and mother and neither of them knows how to cope. Paul turns to anti depressants in bulk form. He may as well be a zombie. TJ, only being 11 or so, does not have the luxury of drowning his sorrow in booze or drugs. He has to deal with his pain all on his own. Paul and TJ are living with Paul's mother trying to pick up the pieces. Life is hard enough for this family, what they don't need is an abusive, destructive, foul mouthed pothead squatter. Enter Hesher!! I said they DIDN'T need that. Anyway, Hesher comes to live with them because TJ blew off some steam. A funky happenstance. Either way, TJ is responsible for getting Hesher evicted from his layer. Now Hesher is gonna real mess up some lives...or is he? The first half of the film is filled with one liners that mostly include a non chalant F word followed by a Heavy Metal rim shot. BRILLIANT. He is funny because he doesn't give a rat's ass about anything. No one really says anything to him except Grandma. She likes Hesher. He talks to her and she is lonely. We get the feeling that Hesher is a guardian angel of sorts. Put there to protect TJ from a bully who is ruining his already crappy existence. Not the case. Hesher actually watches the bully beat up on TJ, and he does nothing. Then we think, maybe Hesher is teaching TJ that no one will ever be there for you, so you should defend and fend for yourself. Nope, wrong again. Hesher is truly a selfish individual that puts everyone around him into awful situations only to bail on them in their time of need. Most of the time, he is both the cause and effect of every bad situation. The film has great visuals throughout. His crap tattoos, his artwork, his van etc.. It also shows, in great fashion, the turning point in Hesher's mentality. What he really needs or wants. We watch TJ and his Dad go at each other's throats while Hesher just sits there eating his dinner. It really begins to look like he may be the normal one in this equation. He goes from dropping F Bombs to talking in nothing but sexually explicit language. That change comes when Nicole (A very drab looking Natalie Portman) shows up. She kind of becomes the third wheel with Hesher and TJ. I really wanted to rate this film A Work of Cinematic Art, especially after the crap I gave to There Will Be Blood yesterday, but alas, Hesher is too just half of a Perfect movie. The second half also derails in this film. It is only 1 hour 43 minutes, but it could have been trimmed. The last 23 minutes are a bit of the writers just seeing what they could get away with. We see Hesher go through a change, then revert, but we also see how he sees the world. He will always keep his guard up, and no one will ever get in. JGL offers up a performance that I could see as being hard. He does things in Hesher that as a human being would be hard to do. He is a bit of a psychopath, but JGL gives him life. He makes us care about him. I think if you can handle all the bad language and how douchey Hesher is most of the time, you will enjoy this.

PS. The swimming pool scene where Hesher emulates Luke Skywalker is absolutely hilarious. I laughed very hard for the first 35-45 minutes, then I felt really bad for the last 45 minutes with a few more laughs thrown in.

NBM rates Hesher Phenomenal