Amazon.com: Fans of the short stories in Denis Johnson's Jesus' Son will wonder how anyone could film a book so beautifully, radiantly, defiantly strange. The good news is that Alison Maclean's film version is more than just faithful to the book's spirit: It's the closest thing to a visual equivalent of Johnson's visionary prose. As a series of vignettes in the life of an unnamed Midwestern junkie-slash-holy fool, the stories are linked more through imagery than through anything so linear as a plot. Maclean preserves this episodic structure but adds just enough narrative glue to make the whole thing hang together as a film. (And wisely so; if she hadn't, there'd have been no role at all for Samantha Morton, brilliant here as Michelle, the narrator's girlfriend.) With a hero called Fuckhead, you know this isn't going to be entertainment for the whole family, and some of the scenes of drug use and associated gore are grim indeed. But the movie looks just right, and some of its images are so beautiful it hurts: old movies playing in an empty drive-in, snow swirling all around; a naked woman parasailing through the sky with her long red hair streaming behind.
Maclean also coaxes wonderful performances from a dream-indie cast, including Morton, the magnetic Billy Crudup as Fuckhead, Dennis Hopper, Holly Hunter, an uncharacteristically understated Denis Leary, and even, in a gruesome cameo, Denis Johnson himself. (Hint: Look for the knife. Then look away quickly.) Once again, Jack Black hijacks every frame in which he appears, and his turn as a pill-popping orderly gives new meaning to the phrase "I save lives." Things drag a little during the last half-hour, but squirm not: Following Fuckhead through rehab and beyond, the book's closing scenes are genuinely redemptive without hitting the audience over the head with a "lesson" of any kind. Jesus' Son is Maclean's first feature film since 1992's Crush; let's hope she won't make us wait as long before the next fix. --Mary Park
'We're wrecking like trains.' "All these . . . weirdos, and me . . . getting a little better every day right in the middle of 'em. I had never known . . . I had never even imagined for a heartbeat that . . . there might be a place in the world for people like us." --"FH"
Titled after Lou Reed's song, "Heroin," there is a reason Jesus' Son was considered one of the top ten films of 1999 by The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and Roger Ebert. Adapted from a Denis Johnson's visionary collection of short stories of the same name (Jesus' Son), this 1999 film stars Billy Crudup (Almost Famous) as "F***head," a drifter, and Samantha Morton as Michelle, the junkie lover who first introduced FH to heroin in the early 70s. The film follows FH's journey from a life of drug addiction, petty crime, detox, and AA meetings, to a life of compassion working at an assisted living facility housing troubled souls like him. Ultimately, Jesus' Son is an radiant redemption story of mesmerizing scenes. The film left me exhilarated and speechless. Jesus' Son also features an outstanding supporting cast including Holly Hunter, Dennis Hopper, Denis Leary, Will Patton, John Ventimiglia, and Jack Black. Highly recommended.
G. Merritt
A Beautiful Mess This movie has a number of things going against it, principally its utter lack of anything resembling a plot... although given its source material (11 disjointed short stories), this is hardly surprising.
So why is it so eminently watchable? Billy Crudup may be easy on the eyes, but good looks alone don't explain how he brilliantly exposes the gentle, goofy heart of his character... there are no inner demons here, just the fundamental personality flaw of a man so erratic, even his junky friends call him "f***head."
Lots of cameos to enjoy herein as well, including a somewhat frightening Jack Black.
I love this movie A great film. Funny, smart, and heartbreaking at times. The story is basically the life of a junkie, but it that reveals that in every person, in every human life there can be moments, either sad or happy, of true beauty. If you really like it, try reading the book. It's beautifully written, and some of the lines you'll recognize in the movie. By the way, Billy Crudup is an awesome actor.
A mess. Jesus' Son (Alison MacLean, 1999)
I don't like Billy Crudup. I've never been overly fond of Samantha Morton. And I have yet to see a Jack Black movie that didn't make me want to claw my eyes out. So what on Earth possessed me to think that there would be any chance at all that I'd like Alison MacLean's Jesus' Son, which features all three of them, along with a host of cameos (most of which, actually, are from actors well worth watching)? I'm not sure, but I should have known better.
Crudup plays [censored] (yes, that's the name we know him by the movie), who gets involved with Michelle (Morton), and the story (using the term loosely) follows the two of them through the ups and downs of their relationship. Neither is a very likeable character; in fact, the both of them are rather disgusting throughout. Michelle gets [him] involved with drugs, and, since that's the way it absolutely must happen in Hollywood, [he] gets hooked and immediately begins a life of crime, then the two try to clean up their act when Michelle becomes pregnant, then we finally circle back to the opening scene, where [he] is hitchhiking his way across the country to track down a lead on Michelle... yeah, it's kind of complicated, more so because it's told in impressionist fashion. Minor characters come and go from the script with nary a wave or a nod; we're simply on to the next story. The end, I assume, is supposed to be an ambiguous attempt at redemption, but by the time we've gone through two hours of being around these rather braindead characters, can we trust anyone? More importantly, do we care? **
Fine Movie, Terrible translation of the book. reworking a book of disjointed short stories that's core is in the mental narrative into a film is quite a task (and that's quite a run-on sentence (more run-ons to come)). They make a decent film, but lose entirely the meaning within the pages of the book. Well not even just lose, they completely change it from a gorgeous poetically profound look at a lost soul, into a pseudo-surrealist dark comedy about a lost soul. Still not a bad film, but if you read the book first (I actually sought it out after seeing the film) you probably will be disappointed. After reading the book and going back... I didn't dislike the film, It just lost its appeal.
The book though, I'd give it 5 stars. Definitely for fans of Brett Easton Ellis. The Movie, I'd give 3.5 stars on its own, and 2.5 stars after reading the book.
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