In the gleefully anarchic trailer for Spencer Susser‘s Hesher, posted here last week, there’s a lot of “metal” things like flaming diving boards and wreckless driving set to “Battery.” While I wouldn’t call this trailer exactly misleading, they tactfully left out the movie’s essential thread of mourning and loss. The film concerns a preteen dealing with the loss of his mother while his father drugs himself into a sweatpants stupor, for chrissakes. It’s depressing material that gets nearly unbearable at times…but then along comes chaos in the form of the poorly tattooed, morally ambiguous Hesher.

Devin Brochu (Rubber) plays T.J., a loner whose life has completely crumbled after the death of his mother in a car accident a couple months before. His father Paul, played by a bearded, beer-gutted Rainn Wilson, can barely remove himself from the couch in grandmother’s house, where they now live. Both are dealing with this grief in unhealthy ways: Paul pops pills and T.J. latches onto their wrecked car while a quiet rage boils under the surface.

After T.J.’s initial encounter with Hesher on the way to school (I don’t want to spoil how this goes down), Hesher begins to pop up throughout his day until finally moving into grandma’s house uninvited. Hesher increasingly provokes T.J. to snap out of his grief through a sort-of perverted tough love. But maybe not in the way you think. Every time I thought Hesher was about to save T.J. from the bully or pull him out of a jam, he pulls a dick move and makes it worse. He’s funny, sure, and we probably all know someone like him. The kind of acquaintance who makes you laugh but the thought of actually hanging out with him makes you cringe. A real motherfucker.

T.J. also befriends a bespectacled Natalie Portman, playing uninteresting grocery clerk Nicole. Seriously, is putting old lady glasses and a baggy shirt on Portman supposed to make her look plain? Piper Laurie (Carrie) plays the grandmother, who just tries to keep Paul and T.J. fed while they mourn. Her and Hesher have some hysterical scenes together and even a really touching one. It’s these moments that might throw some folks for a loop.

Hesher is a movie caked in gloom with relief given through moments of explicit hilarity by JGL. It’s not all anarchy and Motorhead. Susser does a great job of juggling the dynamic between grief counseling and humor. JGL plays Hesher with enthusiasm and for a scrawny dude, he’s pretty damn intimidating. He looks like he’s gonna stab someone at any moment. Piper Laurie is equally funny – delivering some hilarious alzheimer’s induced dialogue. People in the audience were laughing at everything Rainn Wilson said – even when it was some horribly sad shit. It’s hard for people to look past Dwight, I guess. But Wilson really delivers an emotional performance here.

Don’t go into Hesher expecting a side-splitting, heavy-metal riot. That’s only half of it. The other half is a really personal look at how to rise above grief and recognizing the good you have left in the face of loss. Oh, and there’s a terrific fart joke too.

- Oh Mars