Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Oscar Boyson
Starring: Jaeden Martell, Asa Butterfield, Chris Bauer, Jennifer Ehle, Anna Baryshnikov, Noah Centineo, Becky Ann Baker, Avan Jogia, Pippa Knowles
Oscar Boyson was a producer on the Safdie brothers' Good Time and Uncut Gems, and he brings a similar scuzzy energy to his own directorial debut, Our Hero, Balthazar, co-written with Ricky Camilleri. Like the Safdies, Boyson gives us a protagonist who is morally reprehensible and unleashes him like a tornado sucking anyone who gets in his path into the chaos of his world.
That would be Balthazar (Jaeden Martell), a New York rich kid who lives with his mother (Jennifer Ehle) in what appears to be the same apartment building as Denzel Washington's record producer from Spike Lee's recent Highest 2 Lowest. The friendless and socially awkward Balthazar amuses himself by recording social media clips in which he fakes tears and pretends to be upset by various world events. When he falls for genuinely socially conscious classmate Eleanor (Pippa Knowles), Balthazar becomes determined to fool her into believing that he shares her concerns about America's gun culture. Eleanor sees through his sham, and so to convince her that he's genuine, Balthazar travels to Texas in the hope of thwarting the would-be school shooter who has been messaging him online.
The movie then skips back in time to reveal the identity of that online troll. Like Balthazar, Solomon (Asa Butterfield) is a friendless young man, but he's on the other end of the economic scale. He lives with his elderly grandmother (Becky Ann Baker) in a trailer park, and is struggling to keep up with the rent. When he reaches out to his estranged father, Beaver (Chris Bauer), he finds himself exploited by Beaver, who puts him to work flogging testosterone supplements. He also loses his job at a gas station when a female employee (Anna Baryshnikov) complains about his behaviour around her.
Solomon is in a volatile place when Balthazar enters his life, but he's no potential school shooter. This greatly disappoints Balthazar, who is befriended by Solomon ("you're the only person I ever met who's weirder than I am"). Solomon does however enjoy letting off steam by firing his collection of guns at inanimate objects in the woods, and ironically Balthazar discovers he is a natural shot himself. As the two loners share an awkward bond, Balthazar begins to emerge as the one most likely to commit an act of violence.
Boyson's film is a caustic critique of America's growing cultural divide and the forces that thrive on exploiting it. There is an entire industry of liberal politics built around criticising gun culture without actually doing anything to tackle it, much like how the last thing the healthcare industry wants is to inconveniently stumble across a cure for Cancer. If school shooters didn't exist, American liberals would have to invent them, which is essentially what Balthazar attempts here with Solomon. The film also examines the idea of a self-fulfilling prophecy, and how if you demonise an entire group they may well become the very monsters you portray. Solomon initially appears a walking stereotype of a redneck incel, but it's made clear that he's a victim of circumstance and puts away his misguided macho bravado in the company of his grandmother, to whom he has devoted much of his young life.
What Balthazar and Solomon have most in common is a lack of a true father figure and stable male role model. The former's mother has replace Balthazar's father with a "life coach" (Noah Centineo) who spouts tired platitudes at an hourly rate, while the latter's absent father sees his son purely as a way to make a few extra bucks. Both these boys have been sucked into an online rabbit hole where angry and confused young men are exploited by assholes pushing a delusional version of masculinity. Looking after your family, as Solomon does with his grandmother, is the very essence of true masculinity, but ironically Solomon is drawn to his narcissistic father, who pushes a misogynistic worldview that posits masculinity as something that lives in opposition to rather than in harmony with femininity.
Butterfield is unrecognisable in a transformative role, but it's not simply a case of an actor losing themselves physically in a part. The young British star ensures Solomon's humanity is always visible behind the pseudo-masculine facade he has constructed for himself as a defence mechanism. Unlike Balthazar, who is able to cynically produce tears at the drop of a hat, Solomon's problem is that he is unable to express any emotional fragility, likely a result of having been raised by a father who views such expressions as a weakness. Solomon initially appears in Balthazar's life as a faceless troll, but when the two young men meet it becomes clear that Solomon is the one being trolled. Balthazar needs Solomon to fit a certain stereotype, and like so many exploited young men today, Solomon can't see he's being played.
Our Hero, Balthazar is in US cinemas from March 27th. A UK/ROI release has yet to be announced.
