It's not often I give a movie a one star rating, in fact i've only ever done it for 0.13% of the 2500+ movies i've ever seen, but then "Hesher" was an exception. The label of "hilarious" on the front cover of the DVD could not be more misleading. I found nothing in this movie to be even mildly amusing. Take Hesher's gate-crashing of the funeral at the final scene and his drunken,profanity laced diatribe about losing a testicle. Why somebody didn't get up and throw the guy out on his ear is beyond me. I was half expecting the casket to topple over as it was being led down the street with Piper Laurie's body landing on the road before getting run over by a truck. That might have been funny (in a kinda sick way) and led me to giving it 2 stars not 1. What was Piper Laurie thinking to accept a role in this piece of trash. Hardly the way to end a distinguished career! Simply put; the characters in this movie are irritating, especially Hesher. His tattoos look like they were drawn on him by a retarded 3 year old. They were completely unrealistic and made him look like an idiot. His character was a complete jerk void of even the most basic of social etiquette. The only thing good about him was his taste in music - very little of which was even played in the movie. So if you're after a head-banging comedy this sure ain't it unless you enjoy watching some of the most debased forms of psychopathic behavior ever portrayed in a movie.

TJ (Devin Brochu) is a thirteen year old kid, who a few months after losing his mom in car wreck, is riding his bike through a housing development when he crashes and in his anger throws a rock through a window. This summons the long haired, tattooed, heavy metal listening, Hesher (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). Who was squatting in the house TJ through the rock into. After this point Hesher will not leave poor little TJ and his family alone. Joseph Gordon-Levitt was great as the title role, not his best acting job which is "The Lookout", but pretty damn close. From the moment Hesher entered the frame I knew I was going to be watching one crazy ass movie. Now the film never tells us one thing about Hesher, but I thought in doing that it created more of a character that stands out on the screen.Devin Brochu is truly a remarkable kid actor. He has the on-screen presence that most kid actors lack. There are scenes where TJ is being bullied, and they happen to be the worst scenes in the film. Its not because of Brochu it's because of the teenage actor who played the bully, all of his dialogue was absolutely awful, and plus the kid was very pale and reminded me of the movie "Powder" but with spiky red hair.Natalie Portman who plays Nicole, a clerk at a local supermarket that saves TJ from the bully. Portman is great at playing the weird, awkward, indie girl and it shines through in this movie. She also helped produced the movie, so if it wasn't for her, "Hesher" might not have been.Rainn Wilson plays Paul, TJ's father. Paul is depressed and has not changed his clothes or left the couch since he lost his wife. Wilson gives the best performance of his acting career. Every scene that Wilson was in he stole it. Im not going to give anything away, but there is a scene when Paul is arguing with TJ and he has a moment of self-realization, and it was heartbreaking. This is Spencer Susser's first feature film, in which he co-wrote and directed and he could not have done any better, well maybe just writing the dialogue for the bully a little bit better. But other than that, "Hesher" is one hell of an entertaining movie. I give "Hesher" an 8.5 out of 10

My inclination for most of this film was to turn away. It deals with painful situations, an extremely unlikeable central character, music that I'm not personally drawn to. It's raw, threatening, difficult, unsettling. And it's a hell of a film. I'd like to meet the kid, the grandmother and the Natalie Portman character. I'd like to keep the rest of them far far away from my world. And they can take the soundtrack with them. But how can you not appreciate this film? The dialogue. The acting. The direction. It's a resounding success. It's not unlike witnessing a train wreck. Hard to turn away from. Memorable. You'd think with these words I'd have given the film a very low rating, but I haven't. It was true to itself and probably pushed me to confront some stuff that I'd rather not dwell on. The only part that did not resonate well for me was the ending. Spoiler alert, OK? Why in the world would Hesher have delivered what was left of the car wreck? OK, it was cinematic. But his whole message was about moving on. That's what the family needed. I don't get the benefit of having what's left of the death car transported to their doorstep. Won't that keep them as stuck in grief as when the film began?

A Saviour uses a fast track approach with his radical therapy to put those of us experiencing a shattered spirit, and we all do...at different ages and stages in our life. By hyper-extending our physical, emotional and mental security, he uses as many shocks to the heart as needed to jump start our spirits again, giving us new eyes of awareness and the guts to live fully! I absolutely loved this movies message and highly recommend it. Heshers message is awesome. The cast is excellent, with very few characters needed. I haven't seen a movie this good with such a clear cut message plain and simple in eons. Brilliantly written, directed and acted. Long Live Hesher! 10/10