Drugs from a human perspective
Jesus’ Son is a realistic look at an average working class drug scene with a touch of comedy thrown in. Billy Crudup (Waking the Dead, Without Limits, Almost Famous) is FH (yes that’s the name of his character – check the IMDB) our central character and narrator who leads us through his memories in a clever, disjointed order of importance. Normally I would be annoyed by voiceover but here it actually works because this film’s base comes from storytelling and the narration is telling you mental and emotional details you wouldn’t know otherwise. The dialogue is also imbued with a sincerity that is absolutely charming even when not acceptable for “normal” society.
(Momentary disclaimer: I know this film is based on literary work but I haven’t read said writing so this review is strictly from having seen the movie. Thank you and now back to the program already in progress)
Director Alison Maclean (who I forgive for 1992’s Crush after seeing this) treats the script as a video diary of someone’s life, with a splash of surreal images that are never overwhelming or tedious. The camera never moves from an experimental, pretentious “see what I can do?” stand point but instead watches FH affectionately from one moment to the next. There would have been plenty of room for over-the-top scenes like in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (which I did love, just comparing films within genre), but Maclean opts for a character based theme instead of relying on the drug culture to be interesting in itself. In fact, the reason this movie is so compelling is because it is a personal story and not merely a historical look at drugs.
Maclean gets my respect for creating a movie about drugs that doesn’t hit the audience over the head with a morality mallet. Drugs are morally wrong and all that jazz, but in a way this movie puts an average, human face on drugs without condoning their use. FH is such a complete character that you can’t help but like him and sympathize with the fact that he really is trying to do the right thing most of the time. Just because he takes drugs doesn’t mean he is without a sense of right and wrong. Three-dimensional drug addicts don’t normally get this type of non-judgmental exposure, nor this much screen time, and Billy Crudup plays this many-layered character beautifully. I’m glad to see he’s the type of actor who will play non-mainstream characters as long as there is something to sink his teeth into.
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