Hesher

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is funny as the title character, a mysterious, long-haired head-banger who moves into a family’s garage—uninvited—and starts influencing their sad lives in drastic ways. Writer-director Spencer Susser’s dark comedy gives the normally mild mannered Gordon-Levitt a chance to play against type, and he appears to relish the opportunity. Rainn Wilson is good as the distraught father who recently lost his wife, while young Devin Brochu does nice work as his son. Brochu actually carries most of the movie, as the film deals with the loss of his mother and his crush on a store clerk (Natalie Portman). Piper Laurie has a sweet and funny role as the grandma who everybody ignores. Some of the scenes of Hesher going on a destructive rampage, including his ruination of a swimming pool, are priceless.