Jesus' Son (2000)

Really Surprised!

Good idea lost in the noise

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Blistering performances.

Billy Crudup, as an aimless young screw-up and pill-popper in 1970s Chicago, has the mannerisms of a user down right, yet he doesn't convince as an addict. While riding on the dirty subway cars in the darkened city, interacting with the street life and the strays he seems to attract, Crudup certainly has the appropriate glassy-eyed expression and sheepish grin, but he's too lean and muscular and healthy-looking to be taken for a troubled junkie. The film, an adaptation of Denis Johnson's book of short stories, has been fairly well realized by director Alison Maclean (who has a vivid eye for detail); unfortunately, the protagonist isn't really a character at all, and this isn't entirely Crudup's fault. He hasn't been conceived as anything but a walking foul up, one with fabricated answers and--in his narration--'deep thoughts' soaked in the smugness of an elevated consciousness. Many stars help out in support, yet the film is less a dramatic achievement than an arty, somewhat indifferent passel of scenes. ** from ****

Being a huge fan of Denis Johnson and Lou Reed, I was curious how they could make a movie from such unusually random events. The movie does such a great job stitching together Johnson's stories. They are extraordinary, humorous, and often touching. Together they make, in my opinion, one of the best 'drug' related movies ever. It is Borroughsesque in its candid, accurate portrayal of heroin addiction. The flashbacks and fuzzy pieced together vignettes resemble the actual effect heroin has on time. Time seems to slow down with days starting to blur into nights. The movie really touched me as I saw some of FH in myself. I too am a recovering addict. I have been clean for over a year now. Thank god for suboxone!!! For anyone grappling with heroin addiction please consider suboxone therapy. It has truly saved my life, marriage, and sanity.

I chose to see "Jesus' Son" for Billy Crudup and director Allison Maclean, who did the terrifically creepy romantic short I saw on the Sci Fi Channel a few weeks ago, "Kitchen Sink." "Jesus' Son" is a picaresque road movie traveling through addictions, and manages to miss wallowing in the depression that made "Leaving Las Vegas" so unrelenting . Samantha Morton has incredible chemistry with Crudup who is fascinating to keep watching even as his character is a passive naif whom we really don't learn anything about. My biggest complaint is that the cameos by recognizable and/or famous actors (Denis Leary, Jack Black of "High Fidelity," Holly Hunter, Dennis Hopper) make the source material of short stories--which I assume are where the chapter headings come from-- too obvious; I would have preferred intriguing character actors or complete unknowns.This is one of those "little movies" where you see a filmmaker in love with her tools of the medium, because it is both literate and explores the story visually, with judicious use of fantasies and hallucinations.The Joe Henry musical score is wonderful, and the soundtrack selection of alt.country, including several Wilco songs, and offbeat rock and r & b classics are also commentaries on the action (amusingly the only Henry song used comes in over the radio that an annoyed Crudup turns off in order to hear the dialog).(originally written 6/24/2000)

it's not perfect but this is the sort of movie i love and wish could be made set in contemporary times. it mirrors, ever so lovingly, the spirit of the great 70's American cinema, the time period it is set in.there are a couple of unforgivable psychedelic freak outs but i suspect she had to throw those in to get distribution - because at it's sweet and wiggly core - this is a film that is deeply philosophical while being hilarious and transporting and challenging - everything the 70's outsider cinema was supposed to be about - nevermind the time it is set in.it is random partially because it is based on a book of short stories occupied by a character who is ever present in this film. billy cruddup aces it and is so gracefully in tune to the humor and zen of the movie that i will love him as an actor forever no matter what he does."no more pretending for him. he was completely and openly a mess. meanwhile, the rest of us go on pretending to each other. " "all these weirdos and me...getting a little better everyday in the middle of 'em.i had never known...i never imagined for a heartbeat, that there might be a place for people like us."