If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

This is a strange film, a combination of goofy, sad comedy and profound tragedy, but it is a very pleasant film nonetheless. FH (Billy Crudup) is a drug (mainly pills) addict who seems to have a life devoid of any direction or purpose, and yet he has odd abilities and premonitions, along with an "everything will be okay no matter what happens" attitude. He hitches a ride with a family, all the while knowing a car accident will kill most of them. He rescues the infant member of the family, and it strangely coincides with the fact that his girlfriend Michelle (Samantha Morton) had an abortion around that same time. FH lives through the horrible suicide of Michelle somehow, and begins to try to get away from drugs and have a life that makes sense. There are bizarre scenes involving baby bunnies, being able to put a hand through a glass window as if one were a ghost instead of flesh and blood, and an ensemble of characters whose lives FH touches in one way or another, played by Jack Black, Denis Leary, Holly Hunter, and Dennis Hopper. There is no solid "plot" as it were. It's just a tour through a lost, lonely soul looking for a place in the world where he belongs.A very different kind of film, with a cryptic story and main character, but it feels like a refreshment compared to many movies being made today.

First off, I must say that I'm a bit biased simply because I'm a fan of the book. I actually had know idea there was ever a movie made for Jesus' Son. I was describing the story "Emergency" to my girlfriend one day and she said, "That sounds a lot like this movie I saw with Jack Black and Billy Cruddup." Much to my surprise, we were talking about the same story...To me the book is about survivors. No matter how much you have destroyed things in your life, or no matter how badly things have turned out, you can still turn it all around. That was that message I used to get from the book, and I think the movie evokes this same feeling. Brilliant acting, beautiful soundtrack, and powerful stories... The scene with Samantha Morton dancing to "Sweet Pea" is one of my favorite scenes ever.If you're squeamish or turned off towards drug culture stories, Jesus' Son is definitely not for you. However, I would suggest both the book and the movie to just about anyone.

Contains Spoiler--- Highly recommended, dark, realistic depiction of what we call the "drug culture" After you've seen it, read my review:I Just saw the movie on the IFC. Incredibly powerful and affecting. I am a middle class retiree who never lived the life described, yet came close enough to have empathy for the characters. If the film had flaws, they only made it more realistic. We all have flaws. We do not think or live our lives linearly. We all mostly stumble through, only learning vital things too late. Just as poor FH only learned that Michelle has written a note asking to be saved if he loved her--- too late.I would not want, nor do I have the expertise, to analyze this film based on cinematic criteria. The film started with an idea, someone had something to say, each participant-- director, actor, editor, passed that idea along, cleanly and precisely. Every cinematic technique served this advancement of the expression The metaphysical surreal elements didn't seem like an affectation, but worked to express the idea.Emblematic of the tone was after the abortion when FH asked, "what did they stick up you." Michelle's reaction. Her scream. She could have handled the intrusion into her body, the loss of a living being that could have been her child, but the coldness, the rejection of her beloved, was a cause for anguish, expressed perfectly in a primordial cry.And certain lines, as throwaways easy missed, were profound. FH's statement that he didn't even feel the holy water that the abortion opponents threw at him until many years later. The very disorganization and fragmented emotions presaged the awesome decision to end a life. Shallow loser slacker--I think not.In sharing my responses to this film I feel limited by the set of values imposed on artistic endeavor such as this. We search for criteria of excellence of a genre, that others can strive for. We want to see how this work matches up against such criteria. I would rather believe that this was a personal message from someone. And to that person, I just want to say, "Thank you."

If you're looking for a clean, linear story about someone who does drugs, sees the error of his ways and emerges, butterfly-like, as a model citizen, turn right around and walk back the way you came. Jesus' Son instead patches together anecdotal episodes of our amiably inept non-hero's life and acquaintances to give us a picture of a very human, very well-meaning but disconnected and directionless young man. Rather than eagerly awaiting the conclusion of the story, I often found myself mourning the brevity of many of the little segments, which are no less enjoyable alone than as part of a larger narrative.This film needs to be seen for the hospital scene alone. Without spoiling anything, Alison Maclean has assembled a beautifully disjointed array of characters - kudos has and will continue to be given for the deliciously disastrous Jack Black, who both steals the show and plays off Crudup magnificently, but the part of the reception nurse (played by Yvette Mercedes) is also brief but brilliant and deserves a mention.The acting makes this film - it's clever and human and warm, but without the necessary cast, its meandering structure may not have stood up to scrutiny. The quietly terrifying Dundun, the explosive Michelle, Denis Leary and Dennis Hopper's respective turns - all do fine credit to it.Crudup is wonderful; in his hands, the film skirts widely around the clichéd Drugs Are Bad, Mmkay ground of too many films (for every great film of that ilk - Requiem for a Dream, Basketball Diaries - there are many awful ones), and he plays FH subtly and remarkably as a essentially optimistic and wide-eyed fella whose naivety, lack of direction and dubious associations get him into frequent trouble. The structure of his narration is great in its naturalism, starting to tell one anecdote before remembering he forgot to explain something previous - and it adds great depths to his character. One can imagine FH having been the kid at school with "Must try harder" written in red across every assignment.Jesus' Son seems to have divided opinion across the board. It's certainly not for everyone but to my mind, it's one of the best and most unusual films of recent years. Ultimately, if you're prepared to sit and watch something real, terrifically funny, occasionally disorganised, and all too human - a film that eschews neat edges, Hollywood trimming and concise plot structures for a fantastically life-sized character study of someone many of us will recognise in ourselves - then I doubt you'll be disappointed.