We are treated to the world as seen from the perspective of a young druggie (Billy Crudup) who repeatedly screws up through his mixture of bungling, passivity, and choice of companions. I frequently found my interest in the narrative and the characters waning, with particular memorable scenes that made it worthwhile to keep a watch. The uniqueness of the main character's perspective is presented in scenes with a mixture of surrealism at times (along with his own narrative that he can't quite remember). This could have made for an interesting production, but at times I just found it irritating. Maybe I've just seen too many loser druggie films and the mostly pointless lives they portray to empathize with these people and their situations, in contrast to the real-life addicts I have known. The film does have its own redemptive conclusion, however, and deserves credit for being more realistic in the way it is presented than we might have anticipated. In fact, the film's clever title may just have a double meaning, with reference to the Velvet Underground song "Heroin" and a semi-spiritual theme all in one; we're all God's children. Just having seen Crudup in Almost Famous, a film made around the same time from a similar period, may have typed him for me in this kind of role, although he was a far more "succesful" character in that far better film.
Review of Jesus' Son
