The film opens with T.J. Forney (Devin Brochu, Rubber), chasing after a tow-truck that is carrying a wrecked vehicle. You can tell right off the bat that this kid is a mess: in his blind pursuit of the truck he has a collision with a car that he has to pick himself up from, and he just continues after the truck like nothing happened. He follows the truck to an auto yard, and proceeds to lock himself in the car. He clearly has some sort of connection to this vehicle, and we learn that he recently lost his mother in this vehicle and that his father, Paul Forney (Rainn Wilson, SUPER, The Rocker), has sold it for scrap in an effort to move on with his life, while at the same time staying super medicated and stewing in depression, which is clearly NOT moving on with your life. The sale of the vehicle angers T.J., and after a fight with Paul, he leaves for school and, while riding through a housing construction project, hits something in the ground and wipes out again (maybe he should just stay away from anything with wheels?). He picks himself up, angrier than ever at life, and proceeds to hurl a rock through the window of a nearby home that is nearly constructed. He just so happens to pick the one house that our title character is squatting in, and we are introduced to Hesher. Hesher (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Inception, G.I. JOE: The Rise of Cobra), is a long-haired, tattooed, chain-smoking ne'er-do-well, and though no particular age is given to him, we are to assume he is of a late teen, early twenties variety, as we see him at school with T.J. on several occasions. Anyway, Hesher accosts T.J. after the rock incident and drags him into the house. A site security guard, having heard the commotion, shows up to investigate, and Hesher diverts his attention from T.J. to deal with the security guard and make good on his escape, which he does with a well timed, home-made explosive. Hesher leaves in the confusion with the guard in pursuit, allowing T.J. to take leave of his own unchased and make it to school.
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| Not the safest diversionary tactic, but effective, nonetheless. |
After school is over, T.J. is on his way home, and notices he is being followed. It's Hesher, and his motivations aren't readily apparent. T.J. makes it home and looks around for his dad, finding only his grandmother they live with, played by Piper Laurie (Carrie). He nervously returns to the window to see if Hesher is outside, when Hesher asks from behind him where the laundry room is. He then proceeds to set up home there, despite all of T.J.'s protesting, and everyone else around just seems to go along with it, mainly because Paul is too depressed and doped out to care there is a stranger now squatting there, and Grandma is too kind and matronly to have a problem with it. So T.J. now has this to deal with, on top of a bully problem at school with a kid that works at the auto yard that he rubbed the wrong way the day he locked himself in the wrecked car. Through a confrontation with this bully in a supermarket parking lot we are introduced to the other player in our story, Nicole (Natalie Portman, Thor, Black Swan), a clerk at said market. She defends and befriends T.J., and he develops a crush on her, despite she being WAY too old for him (or he too young for her, either way).
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| I never said it was impossible. |
The rest of the film plays out without any real story, it's just the events of these people being brought together and healed by the most unlikely of candidates, who is also someone oblivious to the fact that he is helping anyone. It is hard to pinpoint whether Hesher really is the smartest one of the group, or that his random, unplanned actions are genius unrealized. T.J. seems to be the most dumped on character in this, you can't help but wonder what the world is going to foist on him next, and I personally identified with him the most, but I saw bits of myself in Paul and Hesher as well, so this film connected on a personal level with me that may not resonate with other viewers. You keep watching to see what Hesher is going to do next, and in portraying him, I'm am more impressed with Gordon-Levitt than ever, a rarity for a child star turned adult actor, and his chops keep getting better. Rainn Wilson is superb in a role as far from Dwight Schrute as you can get. You feel his pain and confusion the whole while, as he wears it on his face for most of the film, but also conveys his depression with all his other actions. I was also impressed with the fact that although this is Portman's first production credit, she didn't try to make it HER film, she stayed quietly in the background and played the back-up character that helped drive the Hesher-T.J. dynamic. Finally, given my personal choice in music, the soundtrack rocks, stocked full of early Metallica and Motorhead tracks. My recommendation is to add it to your collection if you are a fan of any of the actors here, and if not, just watch it to become one.
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| 8 out of 10 Fists. |
