By Dan Skip Allen

I live in a state where there have been some violent shootings. One at a nightclub and one at a high school. This is something the public should not take lightly.  Parents of teens especially. In the film “Our Hero, Balthazar” it deals with a situation where this type of thing could happen. There is online bullying and dangerous chat room behavior that leads to a series of events that are very disturbing. The filmmaker Oscar Boyson gives viewers a darkly comedic look at a series of events we shouldn’t take lightly.  This movie has gotten some positive buzz out of the festival circuit last year, and it’s now coming out on streaming services after a short run in theaters a few months ago in the States. It’s definitely one audience needs to see because of the things that have been going on in this country the last decade or so. 

Balthazar or “Balthy” for short (Jaeden Martell, It) is an out of touch teenager who lives with his mother, Nicole Malone Jennifer Ehle) in a highrise apartment in upper Manhattan. He goes to a private school for elite kids and does livestreams online, pretending to cry so he can get sympathy from his schoolmates. He’s specifically interested in Eleanor (Pippa Knowles), who is a teen activist against gun violence in school and elsewhere. He tries to be interested in the things she’s interested in, and so he pretends to be a girl trying to catfish a guy in Texas who he thinks may be planning a school shooting. She doesn’t care about what he says, so he decides to go to Texas to confront Solomon Jackson (Asa Butterfield), but things don’t go exactly as he plans once he gets there.

Martell has done a lot of roles as a child in films like “It”, “St. Vincent” or “Mr. Harrigan‘s Phone” but here he’s doing more teenage stuff. The writers, Boyson and Ricky Camilleri, take some leeway with the idea that even a well-off teenager can just fly to Texas and then take a bus to the fictional town of Denton, Texas. I don’t care how busy a parent is. There is no way she’s letting her son fly to Texas unaccompanied by an adult. That’s where this film lost me. I couldn’t believe this kid could do this. Despite all of the other stuff in the movie, this was pretty ridiculous. I don’t know if they have kids or not, but in today’s world, parents are more protective than ever. 

Despite what I just said, some of the relationship stuff between Martell and Butterfield was pretty funny but scary at the first time. How someone could just get guns so easily and go around shooting them was crazy to me. The Butterfield character teaches the Martell character to fire a gun out in the open. They carry weapons around willy nilly. I guess Texas allows this. I know where I live. You can’t just go around floating your AK47 in public. This kid is out of touch, but I understand why he’s doing some of the things he’s doing. He’s trying to get his father’s attention. His father who only wants to use him for money. Both of these kids have family issues, so that is why they are the way they are. They are both out of touch with reality. That’s also why they have problems with girls.

I’ve been watching Asa Butterfield ever since I saw him in “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” and “Hugo.” He was a young actor whom I had high hopes for in his career. He was almost Spider-Man/Peter Parker before Tom Holland got the role instead. I think that would have changed the path of his career. Instead, he ended up doing the series “Sex Education.” I haven’t seen him much since then, until not in this movie. He’s playing a stereotypical character with a southern accent and bleach blonde hair and  tropes of a hillbilly. It’s a character I didn’t like much. These types of people aren’t exactly one I like very much. If that sounds bad, I’m sorry, but they have this devil may care attitude and think the world owes them everything.  He even has an angry side to him. That’s where the guns come into play. That’s the point of the character I know. I guess it was a bit too over the top for me, though. This, combined with the Martell character, took me out of the film. 

“Our Hero, Balthazar “ is a film that is taking some serious subject matter and making light of it in a darkly comedic way. The filmmaker wants the viewers to laugh at how absurd this scenario is, but for those who have been affected by things that are either depicted here or are alluded to in this movie they are no laughing matter. I live in a state and have worked at schools, so this kind of thing has hit home for me where I reside. I’m sure I’m not the only one. The actors try to do the best they can with the material they are given, but they just came across as pathetic to me in this film. I’m sure I’ll see most of them again in other projects and rave about their performances. Unfortunately, I wasn’t a fan of what the two stars were doing here. This movie might have had a cult following out of festival season last year, but not for me. I take things too seriously, and this film didn’t take this subject matter as seriously as it needed to from my perspective. It’ll be streaming this week, so those who haven’t had a chance to see it may have other thoughts. 

Streaming August 11th Everywhere

🌟 🌟 stars