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| Jesus' Son |
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  (7/10)
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Runtime: 107 |
| Public Rating: 10.00 (2 votes) |
Director: Alison Maclean |
MPAA Rating:  |
| Genre: Drama |
Year: 2000 |
| Writer(s): Elizabeth Cuthrell, David Urrutia, and Oren Moverman |
| Reviewed by: Goatdog |
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This is part drug movie, part road movie, and part something else. Something sweet and innocent, in the midst of drug addiction, death, and constant reminders of our mortality. That something is named Fuckhead.
Fuckhead (Billy Crudup) is a young heroin addict. We meet him midway on his journey through life. He is a simpleminded junkie who is on the road, searching for his girlfriend Michelle (Samantha Morton), who ran off with a man named John Smith. In FH's earnest but scatterbrained style of storytelling, we are assured that is indeed his name. A flashback informs us of how he met Michelle, who was at a party with her boyfriend when FH stumbles in. The boyfriend gives FH his name when he catches him and Michelle kissing. Flash forward a year. FH meets up with Michelle again. It seems her boyfriend is dead, shot accidentally by one of their junkie friends. FH was the only one who tried to help the dying man, and Michelle is impressed. FH gets a job at the emergency room, where he and fellow orderly Georgie (Jack Black) steal pills. Michelle and FH move in together, but their addiction leads to furious fights, an unwanted pregnancy, and an abortion. She leaves him for John Smith, and we are caught up. He wanders aimlessly, then tracks her down. She is clean, but his arrival signals the arrival of old times.
The film does not glamorize addiction. By watching FH, we see how addiction really is. He is never sad, but he is never happy. He floats through life, letting it do what it will. The people around him are varied in their actions. His friend Wayne (Denis Leary) gets him to help in a burglary of sorts, and the two spend their earnings on junk. They both OD, but FH survives while Wayne dies. This is presented matter-of-factly, with FH's cloud not parting long enough to really mourn, or to really feel anything except the fleeting highs. As he observes of the friend who shoots the other junkie, "If I opened your head, and ran a hot soldering iron around in your brain, I might turn you into someone like that." That applies equally to everyone in the movie. The characters are mostly pitiful creatures.
FH is an enigmatic character. He seems simpleminded; or is it just the junk? He seems like a nice guy who is just unlucky. Or, is it as Holly Hunter's character observes, that there are a lot of dead people, and the living are just more lucky? FH has visions. He sees a cemetery while out for a walk with Georgie, but Georgie doesn't. Later, Georgie asks him, "Does everything you touch turn to shit?" We aren't sure he's right. People seem to die when FH gets close to them, but he tries his best to help out. Crudup is a talented young actor who I first encountered in "Almost Famous." He is nearly unrecognizable here, except for the natural talent.
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