[.ca] Jesus' Son (Widescreen)

great movies that no one has seen:
'Jesus' Son' is the kind of wild and uncontrollable film that P.T Anderson and Charlie Kauffman are famous for. If you are looking for a ordinary and easily explainable film, this is not it. If you want to see a film that does not apologize for any of its beautiful and symbolic scenes, this is it. This film is not timid, and doesn't back down. 'Jesus' Son' takes a little while to find itself, in its first few scenes it seems a little lost, but it soon finds its path, and leaves us having experienced a very unique film. The main character, 'FH' (billy crudup) is not Jesus' son, but like him, he isn't written about, and wasn't supposed to happen. He is the odd man out in this world, trying to find a place where he can live, learn, and hopefully grow.

Strictly for white bread suburban wannabes:
I'm not really sure what market movies like this & Drugstore Cowboy - highly artificial romanticized Hollywood fictions about life's total losers - is meant for. Possibly it's the losers themselves, a potentially large if unsung & untrumpeted demographic; or it could be for the great hard-working law-abiding shop-to-help-the-economy consumer middle class which needs to feel that there is really is some flip-side kind of bandit/outlaw culture out there whose lives make all their own compulsive security meaningful. It could be a combination of both. In any case it's the worst kind of voyeuristic self-indulgent airhead garbage.

Dark laughter: tears: redemption:
My first take on first viewing was: right, I want to watch a movie about some disgusting, sleazy, young idiots. The sex. The violence. The drugs. And then, you start to pay attention to the narrator's voice, and you begin to understand the intelligence, the attempt at a philosopy of life that lies behind the voice. And you laugh as a dead guy gets beat up in a corn field. I own two movies--the other is John Huston's "The Dead". I only buy movies that have enough complexity in script, acting, and production, that you can watch over and over and still see new things. This is a movie that changes gears on you constantly. One viewing will not suffice. I still scream with laughter when I see it, and I still weep.

"I Feel Just Like Jesus' Son":
If you came of age (or nearly did) in the 60's, you may recall a moment--very likely sometime in the early 70's, unless you were extremely prescient and saw it coming earlier--when all the hippie idealism pretty much just dissolved before your eyes and was replaced by...well, whatever it was replaced by. I recall being actually kind of angry at all these small town stoners whose only countercultural value was, quite frankly, drug taking. Society was not about to undergo a profound spiritual transformation at their hands. Of course, it was scarcely about to at anyone else's either...but who knew back then? Lost souls like JESUS SON'S "FH" were really not uncommon back in the day. They may not have been uncommon back in any day. But the 60s and early 70s brand was perhaps a little more noticeable and, in some senses, sympathetic because of their vaguely anti-establishment stance. For a brief moment in history, outcasts were almost taken seriously. These people really did exist. As surreal as JESUS' SON sometimes gets, it remains grounded in its very vivid, very authentic characters. Yes, there were certain junkie truths that ultimately became cinematic cliches. The numrerous OD's, the failed love relationships and the sporadic attempts at redemption are all elements of JESUS' SON. And yet, they come across as less cliched in this particular druggie film than in some others. Perhaps it's because the acting is almost uniformly excellent--with leads, Billy Crudup and Samantha Morton, deserving of particular praise. Perhaps too it's, at least in part, because FH's ultimate redemption is a plausible one. Out of rehab, he gets a job in a different kind of rehabilitation center, a home for sufferers of rare neurological diseases. It is finally there that he realizes that there may indeed be a place in the world for people like him. Many viewers will find the final, sobered up segment of the film a little weaker dramatically than the drug addled scenes that precede it. That's true, but the end is also something of a relief. FH would surely have joined the ranks of his fallen comrades in arms had it not been for rehab and the chance at a new life in a new city. It's the kind of ending you could call "bittersweet"--if you use terminology like that. It's also one of only two possible endings for someone like "FH"--and, like him, you're grateful for that much. When I first heard of this movie, I immediately recognized the source of the title as being a line from Lou Reed's "Heroin." I was disappointed, at first, to see that that song was not incluced on the soundtrack. But on further reflection, that actually seemed the better choice. Lou Reed is the quintessetial urban poet. FH never even comes close to New York City or any other real metropolis. The Neil Young, Doug Sahm and Louvin Brothers tracks actually used in the film are actually more fitting.

"Have your ticket in your hand...:
. . .Before it is too late" ~ That line comes from the Woodie Guthrie tune, Airline To Heaven,(performed by Wilco)that plays over the end credits of Jesus' Son. It captures the flavor of this movie, & it sums up the blend of hope, loss, faith & acceptance of life ~ not only for drug guzzling "losers", but for any & everyone. The late 60's/early 70's didn't exactly corner the market on lost weirdo's who found solace behind a substance-induced mask of happiness. One of my closest friends IS that character that Denis Leary plays ~ sometimes comical, sometimes tragic. Just like this movie. Jesus' Son offers the really straight, by-the-numbers people a little insight into the people & lives that those folks usually avoid & disregard; "only bad people use drugs". Not so. It's also interesting to watch a movie that has character's using a variety of street drugs that was made at a time, currently, that is, when most young people in this culture have been heavily bombarded with anti-drug/"War On Drugs" propaganda, & have been steadily for about twenty yrs or so . . yet the story is of an era where that level of propaganda wasn't as pervasive & all encompassing as it is today. Well, anyway, other people have already written better reviews of this than I could, or have, but I had to write something about this heartfelt little movie. "Cheer up my brother, live in the sunshine, we'll understand it all by & by"