Director: Oscar Boyson
Writers: Ricky Camilleri, Oscar Boyson
Stars: Jaedan Martell, Asa Butterfield, Chris Bauer
Synopsis: Follows a wealthy New York City teenager who, eager to impress his activist crush, follows an online connection to Texas where he believes he can stop an act of extreme violence.
What lengths will someone go through for a friend? How far will someone go through for someone they haven’t actually met? What difficulties will someone go through to be hailed as a hero in the eyes of someone they are desperate to impress? These are just a few of the questions that Our Hero, Balthazar brought to my mind. In his directing and from a screenplay he co-wrote with Ricky Camilleri, Oscar Boyson brings us a film that reminds me of Fight Club-era David Fincher. This film is a raw, bleak, disturbing, and hilarious look at youth culture in America.
Jaeden Martell plays the title character, Balthazar, a posh upper class private school kid growing up in New York City. He is obsessed with social media and makes videos in which he cries while speaking of loneliness. He even rehearses his tears until he gets it right. To impress a young woman in his class, he decides he will befriend another lonely teen, Solomon (Asa Butterfield), from Texas, to try to prevent him from becoming a school shooter, and become a hero. Solomon is a product of his environment, and is played to perfection. While the premise of the film seems simplistic, it is a damning look not just on gun culture in America; but social media, family, and societal pressure. These boys have grown up in vastly different environments, but the familiar ache of feeling isolated connects them.
Does this movie answer any of the many questions it raises? Not really. But what it does do is offer a glimpse into the lives of people society ignores, or maybe just refuses to see. Solomon is not just a violent kid. I went into the film expecting a series of tropes and cliches, but this movie tried to show him as a human being before being a stereotype. We see him taking care of his elderly grandma, for whom he is the primary caregiver. We see him try to connect with a woman he has a crush on, only to be humiliatingly rejected. As embarrassing as it is to watch his character, I do feel some sympathy for him. He wants someone to love and care for, and desperately needs someone to love and care for him. When Balthazar arrives in Texas with the sole purpose of befriending him, he believes his life is going to change. Will Balthazar become the hero of this story? You will need to see the film to find out.
I went into the film expecting the film to focus solely on the topic of gun culture in the United States. I was wrong. It explored family dynamics, and the universality of being disconnected from parents, the need for approval. The relationship between the ultra-wealthy Balthazar and his mother could use some deeper understanding, but Boyson really shows us the relationship, or lack thereof, between Solomon and his father. We see Solomon’s father impart some extremely toxic ideas of masculinity on his son. I also appreciated the film’s not so subtle jab at the Mid-Level Marketing business idea, and how it traps poor people into the idea that they will become wealthy if they keep spending their rent money on expensive products they won’t be able to sell. This not only made a statement on the importance of familial relationships, but added depth and understanding to Solomon’s character.
The writing and direction of this film are astounding. The screenplay is written by two men who clearly understand the subject matter and the world of youth today. They show the impacts on a national level of social media, and how it infects the minds of those who devote their lives to it. The film gripped me from the opening shots, and ended with what felt like an emotional punch to the throat. It lingered in my soul long afterwards. This film is not an easy film to watch. However, it is an important film to see.
