Hesher is all about rage. Screaming, breaking windows, setting fire to cars rage. The kind that gets you beat up or arrested in real life. So, mostly it exists in a world without consequences. You can still hurt the people around you, but only because you're hurting inside.
And so Hesher is ultimately about grief, and the anger that comes out of grief, how it tears apart people and families. In that sense it's surprisingly touching, if only because we can all remember being that angry, wishing there was something we could do about it, wishing, I don't know, for some homeless metalhead to try to strangle us then move into our garage.
Or not.
Enter Hesher. Hesher is a man's man, he lives in a van, he drinks PBR out of a can. Joseph Gordon-Levitt wisely plays the character straight, not letting on whether he realizes how inappropriate he's being. You see, Hesher has ceased to understand what inappropriate means, which is part of his fantasy. He lives in a world where you can live out of a van and steal, intimidate, assault or screw whatever or whomever you'd like, without consequences. There is nothing to his personality besides wild abandon. It's pure adolescent fantasy, the way we imagined the lives of older kids when we were in high school. Out on their own, doing drugs and listening to metal. Completely free. Where Hesher gets the money to pay for gas and cigarettes is a mystery (male prostitution?)
Hesher collides head-on with the life of T.J. (Devin Brochu), an elementary school kid who recently lost his mother in a car accident. T.J. lives with his grief-stricken father (Rainn Wilson, not bad) and his addled but compassionate grandmother (veteran actress Piper Laurie). He gets beat up in school, rides his bike everywhere and frequently runs into things (cars, the pavement). The amount of punishment Bronchu goes through in the course of the movie is impressive (in the “How is it legal to do that to a minor?” sense).
T. J. in turn collides with the life of Nicole (Natalie Portman), a frustrated cashier at a shopping center who hates her life. Portman isn't exactly bad in the role, but not quite right either. You believe her when she wonders out loud if she “sucks,” since with the glasses and bad hair she looks as unglamorous as any other girl. Yet you don't quite believe she believes it. As if after every take she winks off-camera and says “Did you see that? I just played poor and ugly!”
Gordon-Levitt similarly is nearly miscast. There's no doubt he can play the part, but you do start to wonder if the screenplay called for a larger, more intimidating actor. When Hesher takes his shirt off in preparation for a fight you're less frightened than worried for his health and nutrition.
Hesher invades T.J.'s life more and more, living in his garage, taking revenge on the bullies that pick on him (though never quite standing up for him). The fact that he is a terrible influence is not glossed over, though the movie does seem to suggest that, for an adolescent boy with that much grief, it's either a lifetime of repression, or Hesher.
Just how irresponsible you think Hesher is with T.J. depends on perspective. As a male rage fantasy about coping with grief through Metallica, it's passable, even poignant at times. The anger that T. J. feels is very real and you can't help identify with the kid. But it's clear from the start the movie itself is as unbalanced as Hesher, in that it is completely in his world, skating the line between comedy and tragedy, not giving a shit about reality, blasting Motörhead with the windows down.
For that, it's a surprisingly good ride. Just don't take anything on the screen too seriously.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
A sketch gallery no one needed to see, some deleted scenes, and a good reel of outtakes make up the bulk of the extras. There's also a fun behind-the-scenes feature with the cast.
"Hesher" is on sale September 13, 2011 and is rated R. Comedy, Drama. Directed by Spencer Susser. Written by Spencer Susser, David Michôd, Brian Charles Frank. Starring Joseph Gordon Levitt, Natalie Portman, Rainn Wilson.
