Following the death of his mother T.J. (Devin Brochu) and his depressed pill-popping father (Rainn Wilson) move in with his absent-minded grandmother. To make matters worse T.J. has become the favorite target of school bully Dustin. To say T.J.’s life is heading in the wrong direction would be an understatement. Then T.J. meets Hesher (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). Hesher is a vulgar vagabond with bad tattoos, a love for heavy metal and a habit of lighting things on fire. He’s a preacher of chaos and anarchy, a dirty old van plowing its way through life.
The appeal of Hesher is that its title character is so unappealing. He’s dirty in every sense of the word and yet he’s also Shakespeare’s wise fool. He sees the world exactly as it is and rejects it. He’s Guy Fawkes without a cause.
When I saw Hesher at the Sundance Film Festival two years ago I left the theater on an adrenaline high. Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s performance is mesmerizing from start to finish. But, even then, I had to admit that the film itself wasn’t nearly as well made as I would have liked as Hesher’s antics overshadow the heart of the narrative. Hesher is really meant to be about T,J. and his struggle to overcome the sad situation he finds himself in. The cast, which also includes Natalie Portman as quirky grocery store employee Nicole, is quite good but they can’t match the bravado of Gordon-Levitt’s Hesher. He’s so much larger than life that he blocks everyone else out of view. Still, Hesher is a hilarious way to spend 106 minutes even though it doesn’t entirely come together as it should.
Bonus features include a couple deleted scenes, a shockingly long selection of outtakes that give a glimpse into the jovial mood on the set and, to balance out the joy, a featurette on a particularly troublesome day where the proximity of an airport and a weed wacker made shooting a miserable experience.