Director Alison Maclean, Billy Crudup, and Dennis Hopper in "Jesus' Son."

MOVIE INFORMATION

With 10 as a must-see, Jack gives this film an: Stars: Billy Crudup and Samantha Morton Director: Alison Maclean Rated: R, with drug use, profanity, nudity and violence Length: 110 minutes

ROCHESTERCRITIQUE

Having seen this film, how would you rate it? 10 5 9 4 8 3 7 2 6 1

By Jack Garner
Democrat and Chronicle

(July, 7 2000) Relentless gloom and utter cynicism are the calling cards of drug-addict films.

But -- surprise -- they're absent from Jesus' Son. That's why Alison Maclean's film is so refreshingly atypical.

Amazingly, it offers grace, humor and hope, yet never betrays the tragic realities of drug abuse. That's an impressive accomplishment.

In one amazing split-screen sequence, two characters suffer overdoses. The one on the right is helped and lives. The one on the left dies.

Based on Denis Johnson's collection of short stories, Jesus' Son follows the haphazard adventures of a young character we know only as F---head (FH for short).

He's earned his nickname by screwing up on a regular basis. Nonetheless, we can't help liking him. He's a sweet innocent, tripping through the land mines of life. And there are few mines as destructive as heroin.

Superbly played by Billy Crudup, FH is an amiable if aimless young man we first meet hitching a ride on a lonely highway. Then, through flashbacks, FH tells a fractured tale of friendships, romances, drug encounters, small-scale thievery and low-end jobs.

Like a drug-induced tale told around a campfire, FH's story shifts between reality and fantasy, as memories and dreams become interchangeable.

Consider, for example, when he and another man knock down walls in an empty home to steal copper wiring to sell for drugs.

FH looks out a window and sees a naked woman soaring through the air, suspended on a harness. The companion says, "That was my wife." Both men accept the fantasy as a bizarre shared vision and turn back to house-wrecking.

Such strange, drug-induced imagery may remind viewers of the superb Scottish drug saga Trainspotting. But Jesus' Son offers a more gentle, less edgy approach to similar material.

One key is romance -- as represented by FH's love for Michelle, a fellow addict memorably played by Samantha Morton, last year's Oscar nominee for Sweet and Lowdown.

Another key is dark humor, including a demented sequence in a hospital emergency room:

FH is working as an orderly, along with the pill-popping Georgie (played by the intense Jack Black, of High Fidelity). Their treatment of a guy who walks in with a knife in his face is something you won't find in any medical journal.

Ultimately, Jesus' Son is a coming-of-age story, but one with high stakes. For FH, taking responsibility for his life is a question of survival.

Alison Maclean has made an affectionate -- and affecting -- motion picture.