Hesher
I went to a matinee of Hesher this afternoon. I liked it more than I thought I would at the very beginning, but I'm still not sure if I liked it overall. JGL's character (Hesher) was much more harsh than I expected. He was basically abusive to everyone, and they made him so unlikeable in the beginning that it was difficult for me to care about his later growth/development (which itself was pretty limited).
I wonder if I would have liked it more when I was younger. The movie had a rebellious teenager air to it, and I might have enjoyed it precisely because it was chock-full of swearing and crazy behavior. At my current age, seeing a grown man set fire to things and threaten children makes me want to call the cops more than it makes me want to celebrate him as an outsider.
JGL's acting was great. He was lost in the role and it was different from anything I had seen him in before. Still, I didn't really enjoy watching him because I didn't like his character. There were ample opportunities for Hesher to redeem himself/justify his presence in the other characters' lives throughout the movie, and almost all of them passed by. That was an interesting writing choice and kept the movie from being trite, but it also kept the intended message of the movie pretty murky.
The bright spot in the movie was the connection between Hesher and TJ's grandmother, but it was too brief and too late for it to impact my perception of the movie overall.
Other issues:
I don't remember if the movie said how old TJ was supposed to be, but his classmates all looked to be at least 4 years older than him, with no explanation. Natalie Portman's character didn't have much of a personality.
Watching a man watch porn and speak in graphic terms about sex in front of a young boy with none of the other adults objecting was disturbing to me.
The movie did have its good moments, and I learned a new dirty joke, but I'm not sure this is a movie I would voluntarily rewatch or recommend to anyone else.
Here's the joke, by the way:
Q: What's green and slimy and smells like bacon?
A: Kermit the Frog's finger. (Hesher elaborates, "Because of Miss Piggy...")