OUR HERO BALTHAZAR
(director/writer: Oscar Boyson; screenwriter: Ricky Camilleri; cinematographer: Christopher Messina; editors: Nate DeYoung, Erin DeWitt; music: James William Blades; cast: Jaeden Martell (Balthazar), Asa Butterfield (Solomon), Chris Bauer (Solomon’s Father, Beaver Jackson), Jennifer Ehle (Nicole), Pippa Knowles (Eleanor), Noah Centineo (Anthony, Coach), Anna Baryshnikov (Solomon’s co-worker), Becky Ann Baker (Solomon’s Invalid Grandma), Avan Jogia (Marketing Crook), David M. Raine (Hakeem Adams); Runtime: 91; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Oscar Boyson, Ricky Camilleri, Jon Wroblewski, David Duque-Estrada, Miles Skinner, Alex Hughes, Jaeden Martell; Spacemaker Productions; 2025)
“Leaves us with a sense of unease about young people in today’s world.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
The debut film by director/writer Oscar Boyson is an absurd comedy about a fake hero of a possible school shooting. It’s a film that seemingly makes light over America’s school shooting crises, as it probes the Gen Z culture through its weird narrative. It’s co-written by Ricky Camilleri with a gift for being provocative.
The wealthy loner sicko Manhattan penthouse living teen Balthazar (Jaeden Martell), called Balthy by classmates, has a personal “life coach” (Noah Centineo), and lives with his neglectful divorced mom Nicole (Jennifer Ehle) in an ultra-luxurious apartment. He has an absentee father living in the suburbs, who relates to his new family and never bothers with him.
The kid posts videos of himself on Instagram crying, as he tries to show us how much he cares about social issues by pulling a fake crying act in his performance art routine.
His clueless private school puts on a special program on gun violence by a consulting group, telling the school it’s outdated way on how to act during a school shooting. Balthy wants to become involved in trying to stop a potential school shooter after he learns that’s the pet project of the girl he suddenly has a crush on, Eleanor (Pippa Knowles). She’s one of the few students at the school who is not rich. When Eleanor watches his homemade videos, she thinks he’s a creepy and stays away from him.
Balthy receives a mocking text and a misleading video of a mass killing from someone with the handle Deathdealer16, after he sees one of Balthy’s emotional crying videos online. Balthy gets the senders name by tricking him over sending him a bawdy video. Thereby Balthy learns he’s dealing with the troubled 20-year-old Solomon (Asa Butterfield), who lives in a trailer park in Texas and is caring for his invalid grandma (Becky Ann Baker). He has a dead-end job in the supplement store of his scammer marketing salesman and bully father (Chris Bauer), a former porn star and drug addict, who wants his kid more involved in his crooked business at the store. Solomon is a messed-up and bullied kid, with a large gun collection, but is not a school shooter. He worries most about getting kicked out of the trailer park because the rent has been raised.
Balthy wants to be a hero to impress Eleanor, so he can date her. He makes plans to go to Texas to stop Soloman through conversing with him, who he believes could be a mass murderer if not dealt with properly.
The title is derived from Au Hasard Balthazar, Robert Bresson’s 1966 classic masterpiece. It’s far from a masterpiece, but it’s an upsetting and timely social satire that leaves us with a sense of unease about young people in today’s world as lost souls, having misconceptions over their masculinity, having horrible dad role models, being unable to deal with reality, and of their inability to use good judgment.
It played at the Tribeca Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 7/3/2025 GRADE: B
dennisschwartzreviews.com