Hesher.

I know I normally have like some theme or reason for why I'm reviewing what I'm reviewing but honestly, this time, this one has no real topical importance, it isn't part of some franchise or studio that I love, it's just a film my friends have wanted me to see. I hope you enjoy the review, any way!

So why Hesher? I'm a huge Joseph Gordon-Levitt fan and to my friend that suggested this film, this role was his best one yet. The critics, however, weren't very kind on it. Although they enjoyed how dark the film was they just felt it never seemed to know where it was going. The performances were praised too but people felt that the characters didn't all belong in the same movie together. Oh dear. To be fair my friend never said this was a good movie, he just said it was Gordon-Levitt's best performance yet and it would like look the critics at least liked his performance, so let's dig in!

Hesher is basically about a kid called TJ who is dealing with the death of his mother, while at the same time is being bullied at school, dealing with his deeply depressed wreck of a Dad, dealing with his very strange grandma and spends his days riding about on his bike. He, by chance, bumps into Hesher and if TJ's life hasn't been turned upside down already, Hesher will make certain of it and... that is like it. Hesher is another one of those films about the difficulty of life and features a range of characters struggling through it. It's a character drama more than a narrative driven film and a film you've seen many times before, the title character, Hesher is the only thing that really gives the film any sense of identity.

Honestly, it isn't even like nothing happens, a lot happens actually but the film plods along with no real sense about itself that it knows where it is going. About the only thing that gives this film any sense of pace at all is the mystery surrounding TJ's mother, it's a satisfying subplot but I have no idea why we learn about it in fragments throughout the film. You could simply argue that, as a character driven piece, simply being about their day to day lives and the random chaos that is life is the reason it's structured and paced like this but it has set piece moments straight out of a narrative film, in the framework of a character driven drama and it doesn't work.

Know this too, you learn very little more coming out of this, than when you went in. Although you may be emotionally enriched by the end (I don't know) this is a film that cares little for explanations. This never really bothered me but if you're used to everything being delivered on a platter, prepare for an aggressive slap to the face. This film leaves so much up to your own assumptions, they should pay you for writing credits.

Be warned as well Hesher is an extremely pretentious film. It's rammed full of uncalled for arty dialogue that is often so forced in its apparent depth that the whole conversation falls apart because of it. At least they have loads of stuff for the trailer!

Thankfully the performances are so incredible, the film is extremely watchable even when very little actually happens throughout the films run time. One of the best things about the central performances is how unusual their casting is. Rainn Wilson plays his character completely straight, without even a hint of humour and that really took me off guard. Since it was such a different kind performance from him, a character so different to the on screen persona I associate him with, it actually really helped me forget it was him and think of him as the character. The same can be said for JGL, I really saw none of his usual on screen persona in this film at all. This may make some viewers uncomfortable, I suppose, but for me it's like they were all deliberately miscast to add a new level of immersion. Plus, we should definitely celebrate a film featuring a child actor...who can actually act. However this also means in turn, that one of the weakest actors in the film is Natalie Portman because she was just basically playing her usual kind of character - which is amusing considering she produced this film under her new production company and got the worst role.

This is supposed to be a dark comedy but this film is ultimately just much too sad. I understand what Hesher is trying to do but it fails to pull it off. I lost my Mum too when I was a teenager, so I know from experience that grief and comedy are intertwined and with an intelligent enough mind, there is nothing that cannot be made funny but there are many deeply saddening scenes in this film, it really is quite heartbreaking in places and despite having three writers, I don't think they ever find the balance to make this into a proper dramedy. It's just 95% depressing with the occasional scene which would catch me off guard and make me chuckle, an occasional scene so utterly bizarre you can't help but laugh or a scene where I would laugh out of nervousness. And I mean I don't mind a film that challenges you, I actually quite like it, but this is no easy watch and a few jokes sprinkled about doesn't somehow make it a comedy.

This creates other problems too, especially when it comes to the character of Hesher. I mean the arty dialogue, as pretentious as it is, has to be expected to some degree in a film like this and I guess you can't blame Natalie Portman for playing the same role again, even if she isn't challenged quite like Wilson and JGL are but Hesher, what the fuck is he doing here? In such an otherwise bleak world, Hesher feels like a cartoon character at best, he just feels utterly out of place, I mean he's a really good character, JGL is awesome but he just feels like he's in the wrong movie. I honestly kept waiting for him to turn out to all be in the kids head but nope, he's real. And yes, as much as you could argue he is a deliberate plot device, an advocate of chaos if you will, with the kids Mum dying two months before I don't think a chaos agent is needed. Hesher isn't needed in a movie named after him from a narrative point of view but in terms of the film as a whole, Hesher is the only thing that keeps this thing interesting, I found that irony amusing. And whereas breaking audience expectations with the casting worked, I'm not sure it works in quite the same way...or at all, for Hesher himself.

So do I recommend it? One critic described the film as 'lopsided' and I think that actually sums up Hesher perfectly. As fantastic as Hesher is as a character, if you were going to watch this film for any reason, watch it for Rainn Wilson, his performance as Paul is just mind blowing. Hesher, although surely not an easy character to play, is surely easier to play than Paul. Paul says little, he does little and yet he is the character we understand the most. As an actual film, it's pretty enjoyable, it has moments which truly are profound and moments that are truly touching but I'm still not sure I can recommend this to a general public. This is that same pretentious movie about life that thinks it has way more to say than it really does that you've seen circulating the indie festivals since those festivals began. This story has been told better, so many times before, if you're looking for 'another one of these movies' then by all means, enjoy, everyone else though, I don't think you'd get anything out of this.