Hesher
Newmarket Films | Release Date: May 13, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
45
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
6
Mixed:
13
Negative:
7
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
New York PostKyle SmithMay 13, 2011
Unlike many films that hope to be called black comedy, it does not skimp on either the black or the comedy. Read full review
80
NPRBob MondelloMay 13, 2011
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 full review
75
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottJul 15, 2011
There's meaning, great meaning, in Susser's wonderfully oddball little film. Read full review
75
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanMay 16, 2011
Bad role models sometimes make the most interesting movie characters. The ill-mannered, unkempt, foulmouthed and hot-tempered title character of Hesher is just such a walking contradiction. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversMay 12, 2011
As played by the spectacular Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Hesher is the id run rampant. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrMay 12, 2011
It's a fearsome and giddily unhinged performance in a movie that isn't entirely sure what to do with it. Read full review
60
MovielineMichelle OrangeMay 12, 2011
Portman is also a producer of Hesher; it is the first of her new company's films. It's not too tough to see what might have drawn a producer to the project: The story's mix of the mythical and the mundane has become an indie staple, and Hesher's edge might have proved artful instead of shredding everything in its path. For any actress, however, the part of Nicole is embarrassingly thin. Read full review
60
Time OutKeith UhlichMay 10, 2011
That T.J. and his family willingly allow this headbanging psycho(analyst) to move into their cluttered, dankly lit abode-the emotional damage is palpable, yo!-is just one of the film's many eyebrow-raising contrivances. Read full review
60
Boxoffice MagazineAmy NicholsonMay 9, 2011
Joseph Gordon-Levitt dominates this slight, worth-a-watch dramedy. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeMay 9, 2011
Too dark for a very broad audience, it will flummox some viewers drawn by its cast but will strike others with its more-than-prickly approach and standoffish humor. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianShawn LevyMay 27, 2011
The chief thing he (Susser) has going for him is Gordon-Levitt, whose intense immersion in his overwritten character is laudable if the result isn't exactly likeable. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleMay 13, 2011
Director Spencer 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 from a cast that includes suddenly ubiquitous Oscar winner Natalie Portman. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaMay 12, 2011
Hesher has its genuinely affecting scenes, but too much of the time it feels false and shallow. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderAndrea GronvallMay 12, 2011
Writer-director Spencer Susser and cowriter David Michod (Animal Kingdom) generate fresh hells at a surreally rapid clip but cop out with an incongruously sentimental ending. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanMay 11, 2011
As the checkout girl everyone's got a crush on, Natalie Portman makes a winsome return to her "Garden State" gawkiness. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternMay 12, 2011
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 full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenMay 12, 2011
Hesher is a muddle of inchoate feelings that never really grasps the clichés to which it raises its middle finger. Read full review
40
Village VoiceMark HolcombMay 10, 2011
Still, 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 full review
40
VarietyTodd McCarthyMay 9, 2011
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 full review
38
USA TodayScott BowlesMay 12, 2011
Speaking of that middle-finger finale, there is one redeeming trait: At least it signals the end credits. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleMay 12, 2011
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 full review
25
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsMay 12, 2011
For the rest of his life, Spencer Susser can brag to the other ditch diggers that he persuaded two of the best young actors in Hollywood to star in one of the worst movies ever made. Read full review
25
The A.V. ClubNathan RabinMay 12, 2011
It's all quirk, posturing, attitude, and needless exertion signifying nothing beyond its own sad need to impress. Read full review
25
ObserverRex ReedMay 10, 2011
Only the great Piper Laurie delivers dollar value. Otherwise, Hesher is to movies what graffiti is to a rotting fence. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierMay 13, 2011
Any way you slice it, writer-director Spencer Susser's movie is bad company, full of wanna-be-outrageous anecdotes from the fringe. Read full review
20
The New York TimesStephen HoldenMay 12, 2011
You see, this character, who is given no back story, is Life with a capital L. He is the Forneys' guardian angel who rouses them out of their funk. Given the movie's U-turn into allegory, maybe he's supposed to be a punk Jesus. Not even Mr. Gordon-Levitt's unremittingly savage performance can begin to salvage such hokum. Read full review
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