Hesher, about an “anarchist-trickster” fond of wandering around in his tightie-whities (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who becomes part of a motherless young boy’s life, debuted two Sundance Film Festivals ago. It’s flirted with distribution ever since and is now scheduled to come out in April, thanks to the Natalie Portman effect. (Bankable and Oscar-approved, her back catalogue will not be going straight to DVD.) Portman plays a supermarket clerk whom the boy is infatuated with. She notably wears a pair of oversize plastic serial killer-cum-hipster glasses in a way that is neither hip nor killer, and doesn’t obscure the fact that she still looks like Natalie Portman. Notable fashion choices are one of the only major takeaways of the trailer, which plays, not unpleasantly, like the Sundance version of Drillbit Taylor (so, Drillbit Taylor, with feelings). Rainn Wilson, as the boy’s bereaved, drugged-out dad, has a beard a Hasid would be proud of, and Levitt, as the titular Hesher, has a Jesus mane and a large number of handmade tattoos that are shown off nicely when he wears the aforementioned undies and/or hits children with his car and/or sets things on fire.
