Is Natalie Portman in everything these days? It certainly feels like it. This year alone, we’ve already seen her in “No Strings Attached,” “Your Highness,” “Thor” and now “Hesher.” And she’s been on moviegoers’ minds ever since she won the Oscar for “Black Swan.” “Hesher” is the best of all four. In fact, “Hesher” might be the best film I’ve seen so far this year. It came as something of a surprise, given that the movie’s poster contains this tagline at the top: “Sometimes life gives you the finger and sometimes it gives you. …”
The film is as unexpected as the character after which it’s named. T.J. is a lonely boy, bullied at school and ignored at home. His father (Rainn Wilson) hasn’t recovered from the death of his mother; the pair now live with Grandma (Piper Laurie), and it’s not clear she’s all there. Riding his bike one day, T.J. comes across a construction site. Squatting in the house is Hesher — just Hesher (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). T.J.’s presence alerts the cops, and Hesher is forced to flee. He makes himself at home at T.J.’s place. “What’s he doing here?” his dad asks. T.J. responds, with a word that’s both a question and an answer: “Laundry?”
