Hesher 2010

Amy Nicholson, Boxoffice Magazine: Gordon-Levitt's Hesher is raw destruction and aggro comedy punctuated with a blast of crunching metal. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Happily, Hesher never lays things out too clearly. Just as you never know where he came from, it's hard to grasp where he's going, or even what he's doing in the moment. But you know he fits somewhere. And that's satisfaction enough. Read more

Kathleen Murphy, MSN Movies: Impressive influences all, but Susser's first film feels like an original -- imperfect but often fresh and true, and a worthy showcase for a star on the rise. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: Not even Mr. Gordon-Levitt's unremittingly savage performance can begin to salvage such hokum. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: Sundancey redemption-trajectory aside, the film is often unsentimentally tough and committed. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Rather than a character rooted in some sort of reality -- social, satirical, psychological, take your pick -- Hesher is an abstract notion animated by false energy. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: A grim little drama that seems to exist in order to give the talented Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Natalie Portman a chance to look extra-scruffy. Read more

Nathan Rabin, AV Club: What does he want? Where does he come from? Director Spencer Susser appears too intoxicated by the title character to risk peering beyond the enigmatic surface for fear of losing some of his mystery, as mystery is all Hesher has. Read more

Jake Coyle, Associated Press: Warts and all, "Hesher" is still a good shot in the arm. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: [Gordon-Levitt gives] a fearsome and giddily unhinged performance in a movie that isn't entirely sure what to do with it. Read more

Andrea Gronvall, Chicago Reader: Writer-director Spencer Susser and cowriter David Michod generate fresh hells at a surreally rapid clip but cop out with an incongruously sentimental ending. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Joseph Gordon-Levitt is riveting as the title character, an ambiguous, intriguing mentor/menace. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Hesher, whose arrival on screen is almost always heralded by a demonic speed-metal riff, is a delinquent sociopath with a heart of gold. That's the false, rather cloying concept behind this smug indie dud... Read more

Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times: Susser, who wrote the film with David Michod, has a kinetic filmmaking style and an impish, crash-and-burn sense of humor that keeps sentiment at bay long enough to let us appreciate the loose, uncomplicated performances... Read more

Richard Brody, New Yorker: The movie's piling on of miseries blurs the boundaries of goopy sincerity and cynical marketing; the calculated dose of daring melts into hearts-and-flowers sentiment. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Gordon-Levitt is a sly and inventive actor, and it can be genuinely fun to watch him having so much fun. But this character wears out his welcome fast. Read more

Bob Mondello, NPR: Director Spencer Susser doesn't try to make Hesher anything other than a sociopath - a walking, profanity-spewing id - and to his credit, neither does Gordon-Levitt. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: At a future date, when some grad student writes a thesis on 'Wild Men of the Subconscious in Popular Culture,' there will certainly be a special place for 'Hesher.' Just as long as it stays there and is never in front of my eyes again. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Unlike many films that hope to be called black comedy, it does not skimp on either the black or the comedy. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Only the great Piper Laurie delivers dollar value. Otherwise, Hesher is to movies what graffiti is to a rotting fence. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Hesher has its genuinely affecting scenes, but too much of the time it feels false and shallow. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: "Hesher" assembles a group of characters who aren't sure why they're in the same movie together. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: As played by the spectacular Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Hesher is the id run rampant. Even when the script edges him into Hallmark sentiment, you can't take your eyes off him. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: "Hesher" is about as awful as independent films get, a mix of ugliness and unearned sentiment, with a flat story, repellent and pathetic characters and dialogue that consists of lots of stammering and cursing. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: When the blessed credits finally roll, the first thing Susser shows us is Hesher's tattoo of a raised middle finger. Backatcha, dude. Read more

Scott Bowles, USA Today: It's unflinching stuff, and might have worked if there were a reason for any of it. Levitt, Portman and Wilson work hard to infuse the film with some likeability. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: The problem with the script by Susser and David Michod, working from a story by Brian Charles Frank, is that Hesher's uncouth behavior is so aggressively pushed to single-minded, crudely exploitative effect. Read more

Mark Holcomb, Village Voice: Hesher finds uncommon sympathy for people at loose ends, and although Hesher himself is sentimentalized and backhandedly inspiring, he never softens into an actual role model. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: Bad role models sometimes make the most interesting movie characters. Read more