JESUS' SON (2000)
Grade: B
Director: Alison Maclean
Screenplay: Elizabeth Cuthrell, David Urrutia, Oren Moverman
Starring: Billy Crudup, Samantha Morton, Denis Leary, Jack Black, Holly Hunter, Dennis Hopper, Greg Germann, Will Patton, Mark Webber, Michael Shannon
(Note: This review originally appeared on REELING in early June prior to its theatrical release)
As the month of June closes I can't help but look back on all the shitty, joyless, but damn expensive Summer flicks I've endured; the kinetic showboating of MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 2, the empty headed Toyota commercial visuals of GONE IN SIXTY SECONDS, the boring platitudes coupled with jerky action and BRAVEHEART's plot in GLADIATOR, the non-stop gross out desperation of ROAD TRIP, and the Saturday Morning Cartoon drawings of TITAN A.E. They all looked fantastic and seemed to hold a wealth of possible treasures, you know, the Saturday Matinee thrill of adventure with maybe some good characterization thrown in, but no, they pandered and failed to even elicit the cheesy thrills of past summer crapola like DEEP BLUE SEA or THE FRIGHTENERS.
So I return, my childlike hopes squashed, to the ol' reliable art house. I don my spectacles, attempt to procure a three-day growth of beard and I enter, tail naturally between those legs of mine, one of my old theatre haunts. Pleasant memories waft my way-- the friendly security guard babbling about Fellini films, the male ticket ripper with the eye-liner and the RESERVOIR DOG's T-shirt, ahhh yes a world as full of magical incongruities as a Fellini film. You see in the early to mid nineties the art houses have been my refuge from the Hollywood crap that pollutes cities across this fair nation. I remember the hipster urgency of RESERVOIR DOGS, the sad\funny paces of TREES LOUNGE, the love of life found in BIG NIGHT, but that was long ago. I've been disappointed by these as well; most recently my trips to the art houses have been less fruitful; PECKER was John Waters homogenized (and he was the one doing the homogenizing, no lose), THE LOSS OF SEXUAL INNOCENCE was a choir to sit through, DESERT BLUE felt like a lame WB special complete with Kevin Williamson style quirks, and on. Most indie films are now just as manufactured as the mainstream ones.
Those "fringe" movies have spawned into their own little market full of flicks with their own brand of high concepts; the casual drug use, coolly unshaven men with tussled hair pontificating like philosophy scholars, hip white boys who use the "n" word like it's the ultimate badge of rebel cool, and the requisite Janeane Garafalo appearance. It's become just as tough to make a personal statement in that kind of arena so now previous indie film makers like Todd Solonz, David O Russell and Neil La Blute have migrated to major film, which is a good thing. It's about time for a shift.
JESUS' SON is chock full of the elements of indie films I've grown to loathe. It has the grungy-chic hand held photography, the medium close-ups of junkies shooting up, the quirky supporting characters, and it's a bit of an episodic, shambling mess vacillating wildly from one tone to another. But it has a certain lackadaisical charm, a bit of free wheeling gusto that those mapped out, formulaic big budget summer movies lack. Its actors and screenplay overcome the occasional handicaps, and maybe I would have given it an even higher grade had I not been so put off by its essential ingredients. (One can only sit through so many hiply off center philosophical junkie flicks…). But it coasts on a sort of sedated charm that leaked through the screen and gently tap-danced on me. I felt like I was viewing something genuine, something with a distinct feel and voice and even some insight into its low lifes. This movie is at least alive while, nowadays, most indies come at us DOA. Billy Crudup stars as F*ck Head (a nickname that stuck after he seemed to go out of his way to keep it) a passive drifter who lets life carry him wherever. He's a follower who stumbles into the junkie lifestyle after developing a dysfunctional relationship with a Michelle (Samantha Morton), a petulant junkie. He's a bit of a flaky idiot but a damn likeable one the way Crudup plays him. The actor gives FH a sort of off kilter John Cusack on smack vibe (the character could be the directionless Lloyd Dobler of SAY ANYTHING after being dumped by the Ione Skye character). He's charming in an enigmatic way with mannerisms that seem ever so slightly off. Crudup's an attractive actor (like a cross between Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise at their scruffiest) and for him to play this kind of loser with the same lived in baggage he gave heartthrob track star Prefontaine in WITHOUT LIMITS (the better of the two bio-pics of "the James Dean of track") marks him as not only a major talent but a very capable leading man just waiting to hit the mainstream.
FH wanders through several low down adventures, most unrelated, with a narrative that could kindly be called non-existent. The film is like a series of SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL shorts strung together, all featuring the same character and his progressions (or digressions). Each short has a guest star who most likely won't be seen in the next one. Dennis Leary, for once abandoning his rat-tat-tat delivery for subtle characterization, is one of those appearing briefly as a stoic drunk who tears apart his old home in order to sell the copper for money. Jack Black (HIGH FIDELITY) appears in the film's most amusing "short", as a hospital orderly who acts like a kid in a candy store. He has what may be the funniest scene I've seen all year; a bit involving mind-altering drugs, and incompetent staff and an impaled patient is like Preston Sturges meets Tarantino and all that implies. Dennis Hopper is sharper than usual as a craggy old drunk who got shot twice, by his two different wives and Holly Hunter acts exactly like Holly Hunter.
Samantha Morton (SWEET AND LOWDOWN, in which she was nominated for an Academy Award) appears in several of the shorts as the woman who loves and manipulates Fuck Head. Her child-like sweetness is matched with a world-weary quality that seems to be taking over. Their relationship is a passive aggressive one with the Morton character largely in control.
JESUS SON may be annoying to some for it's a film that's all ebb and flow, excitement and boredom. The film doesn't really end so much as run out gas which I suppose is appropriate considering the character's journey; if it had ended differently with some overly dramatic conclusion I'd probably be bemoaning it, though it seems that JESUS' SON overstays its welcome just a bit with its last twenty minutes seeming largely redundant, sort of like how it might be to watch Benjamin and Elaine from THE GRADUATE after they realize how wrong they are for each other (that had to be a real long bus ride) and begin getting on each other's nerves, eventually splitting up and returning to their old lives.
JESUS SON isn't a great film but in a time where indies seem to be dying a slow boring death, it's an appropriate return to what independent film should be doing. And after a month of wadding through high concept Hollywood crap it's just what I needed to get excited about the movies again.
http://www.geocities.com/incongruity98 Reeling (Ron Small)
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