45
Metascore
26 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 75Rolling StonePeter TraversRolling StonePeter TraversAs played by the spectacular Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Hesher is the id run rampant.
- 60Boxoffice MagazineAmy NicholsonBoxoffice MagazineAmy NicholsonJoseph Gordon-Levitt dominates this slight, worth-a-watch dramedy.
- 60The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeThe Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeToo 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.
- 60Time OutKeith UhlichTime OutKeith UhlichThat 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.
- 50Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanAs the checkout girl everyone's got a crush on, Natalie Portman makes a winsome return to her "Garden State" gawkiness.
- 50Chicago ReaderAndrea GronvallChicago ReaderAndrea GronvallWriter-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.
- 40VarietyTodd McCarthyVarietyTodd McCarthyThe 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.
- 40Village VoiceVillage VoiceStill, 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.
- 40Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenAustin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenHesher is a muddle of inchoate feelings that never really grasps the clichés to which it raises its middle finger.