Hesher

The mostly nice-guy Jason Gordon-Levitt plays Hesher, of the title, against type. Hesher is a mean piece of trash. He's got long hair, ridiculously stupid tattoos, and his sense of discipline is skewed, chocking up to: figure it out yourself. Hesher comes about when T.J. throws a rock through his window. It's not really his window, though, as Hesher's been hiding out in an abandoned house. He walks out and drags T.J. on the ground, the cops come, everyone runs, T.J. goes home and finds Hesher living in his garage. T.J.'s around 12 years old, and his mother has just died in a car crash. His father has resorted to absolute depression, and doesn't really mind Hesher. The point of the film seems to be to point out that any kind of interruption of normality or routine can shift sensibilities, and that's pretty well established by Levitt's Hesher, who couldn't be called a good influence, but certainly influences. However, the film is just so mired in a boring sense of what's interesting, setting up silly or stupid jokes that we're just supposed to snarl at. The film actually is so bad that despite committed performances it just angers us in its nonsensical rationality.

★