Jesus' Son

Jesus' Son


Starring:Billy Crudup, Robert Michael Kelly, Torben Brooks, Dierdre Lewis, Jimmy Moffit, Antoinette LaVecchia, Samantha Morton, Steve Buck, Ben Shenkman (II), Scott Oster, Brooke Rachel Shive, Mark Webber (II), John Ventimiglia, Jesse Weaver Jr., Michael Shannon, Todd Berry, Bill Thompson (VI), Elizabeth Cuthrell, Denis Leary, Joanne Bradley
Director: Alison Maclean
Studio: Lions Gate
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
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
Jesus' Son
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • A mess.
  • Fine Movie, Terrible translation of the book.
  • Great Indie Film
  • "I thought about mermaids."
  • Really Extraordinary Movie
Jesus' Son
Starring: Billy Crudup , Robert Michael Kelly , Torben Brooks , Dierdre Lewis , and Jimmy Moffit
Director: Alison Maclean
Manufacturer: Lions Gate
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00009MEBE
Release Date: 2003-07-22

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

Customer Reviews:

2 out of 5 stars A mess........2007-05-27

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? **

3 out of 5 stars Fine Movie, Terrible translation of the book........2007-03-21

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.

5 out of 5 stars Great Indie Film.......2007-02-01

I often confused this film with Drugstore Cowboy, but this film stands on it's own for it's more surreal quality to it. A memorable scene is when Billy Crudup's character is working in a hospital with Jack Black's character and some guy comes into the emergency room with a butcher knife through the eye. Great film about a young man's awkward journey into life.

2 out of 5 stars "I thought about mermaids.".......2006-10-24

That line from the film kind of sums up what was going through my mind while watching this snorefest. Okay, maybe snorefest is a bit harsh, but I will admit that I dozed off for a few minutes and definitely day-dreamed through at least a third of the film. I'm all for movies that remain somewhat plotless but explore more or less human interaction, but `Jesus' Son' was one of those films that didn't explore much of anything. Honestly if it weren't for Samantha Morton's wonderful performance I may have deemed this a pointless waste of my afternoon, but her performance alone made me happy to have at least sat through this once. Billy Crudup was terrible here. He has done much better in other films but here he just came off amateur.

As the nameless narrator Crudup gives us sequences of events that try and tell us who he is as a person but fail miserably to do so. We see him meet and fall in love with Michelle (Morton) and then watch them fail to clean up (their drug use). We watch him pop pills with Georgie (Black in a scene stealing role) who works as an orderly at the hospital our hero (should I call him that) works in. We see him kill some baby rabbits and peep on the Amish woman who lives near him. The problem is that none of these scenes, none of these events really establish any ground or make us care one bit for our narrator (well, I say `us' but I mean `me'...they didn't make me care about him at all). The acting on the parts of Morton, Black and Hunter are great but they are not enough to elevate this movie beyond a one time regret.

4 out of 5 stars Really Extraordinary Movie.......2006-06-01

The story of "Jesus' Son" is lifted from a series of short stories by author Denis Johnson. That explains the jostling and somewhat disjointed episodes of FH's (Billy Crudup) life. Given the subject, I think jostled and disjointed works to its credit.

"Jesus' Son" is a story about a man named FH. FH is a junkie. His girlfriend Michelle (Samantha Morton) introduces him to heroin and a lifestyle that's... well, disjointed, focused on just getting by. It's a tender bond born of a shared weakness. FH soon becomes a hardcore drug addict, taking (and breaking) anything he comes into contact with. Thus begins a series of comic and tragic episodes featuring a motley crew of supporting characters (played in part by Jack Black, Denis Leary, and Denis Hopper).

The movie represents drugs honestly. They aren't portrayed as evil, nor does the movie get caught up in naïve drug glorification. The drug sequences are surreal and comical. They even add depth to FH's experience, not just in terms of short term sensory perception, but his experience of tragedy and human deprivation. The movie contains one of the funniest episodes I've ever seen, where FH becomes an emergency room orderly. He and fellow orderly Georgie (Jack Black) use their position to score drugs. When the ER is visited by a man with a Rambo style survival knife sticking through his eye (says FH, trying to out-pun the ER staff: "Patient complains of a stabbing headache."), the local doctor refuses to touch it. Georgie doesn't have similar scruples (or medical training). He emerges from the operating room knife in hand, apparently after gripping the handle and pulling it out. When the man survives without brain damage, one of the ER staff asks him what it is he does. "I save lives," says Georgie. It's one of the funniest scenes I've ever seen, in any move, period.

When I see the drug scenes, I think of a quote by the late Hunter S. Thompson, "I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me." They work for FH, for a short time, until he realizes its give and take. He can't juggle the distractions of drugs with keeping a normal life, and through personal loss he finally appreciates what's happened to him, and sobers up. The ending isn't too sugary--FH learns through mistakes that had disastrous consequences. "Jesus' Son" is a really incredible movie. I highly recommend it.

Mary, Mother of Jesus
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • The Gospel According to Mary
  • Christian Bale bails Christians
  • Good effort
  • Excellent Production
  • Quite Unbiblical
Mary, Mother of Jesus
Starring: Christian Bale , Pernilla August , Melinda Kinnaman , David Threlfall , and Simone Bendix
Director: Kevin Connor
Manufacturer: Lions Gate
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B000089760
Release Date: 2003-03-18

Amazon.com

This TV movie doesn't venture far from biblical accounts to dramatize the life of the Virgin Mary. It gets off to a promising start by showing Mary to be a resourceful and brave teenager, as she stands up to Roman soldiers who come thundering on horseback into her village. The production then proceeds chronologically, and the major events of Mary's life, and the life of Jesus, are played out in dramatic fashion. Mary is portrayed as having to face a series of struggles and tests of faith, from the time when she is terrified to meet the messenger of God who foretells the birth of the Messiah to her witnessing the brutal scene of her son's crucifixion. As the movie deals with material that will, of course, be familiar to most viewers, an unavoidable problem is that there are few surprises, and while the script does attempt to fill in some nuances of Mary's life, at times the dramatic portrayals can't help but seem forced. Mary, Mother of Jesus was obviously a labor of love by the executive producers, Eunice Kennedy Shriver and her son Bobby Shriver, and while it may not always succeed dramatically, the story is told coherently and some viewers will find it an inspirational paean to a revered religious figure. --Robert J. McNamara

Customer Reviews:

3 out of 5 stars The Gospel According to Mary.......2007-03-08

Implementing an admirably brisk pace, and sporting some exciting crowd and chase scenes, 'Mary, Mother of Jesus' has an instant appeal. Keeping close to scripture in key portions of Mary's and Jesus' lives, the film, nevertheless, may bring controversy with some of the fill-in interpretational moments. With good performances all around, especially Pernilla August in the title role and Christian Bale as the grown Jesus, the movie, however, presents a Mary that's a little more outspoken and fiesty than we're accustomed to. (Sometimes I had to wince when Mary teaches Jesus the "Good Samaritan" story and her protest against a stoning of an adulterer before Jesus is born. Yet, the Bible does state that Jesus "increased in wisdom and in stature..." He did learn things.) Also, John the Baptist seems fiery and folksy enough to bring a genuine translation (one of the best performances in memory of him), and Judy Cornwell as the Innkeeper's wife (Judy Cornwell) provides some comic relief with her robust performance. The details are also worthy. The scenery provides a simple beauty that never brings a stage presence to the film.

Just as 'The Robe' surmises the Jesus story from the point-of-view of a convert after the repurcussions of Jesus's ordeal, 'Mary,...' provides another portrait of the gospel as witnessed by a key participant in Jesus's life.

2 out of 5 stars Christian Bale bails Christians.......2007-02-06

I'm not reviewing the Biblical accuracy of this movie, or how different religious sects might react to it. I'm just going to review the actual quality of this movie. And that quality is remarkably low.

I'm assuming that this is a made-for-tv movie, because it definitely plays like one, there's even occasional blackouts, I'm guessing where there were originally commercial breaks. The main problems with this film, and there are several minor ones we won't concern with, are the production value being incredibly low, the fact that all the actors are white and have ENGLISH accents (they even go so far as to have the owner of the manger where Jesus is born have a COCKNEY accent, as if to show she's of a lower class, but a lower BRITISH class,mind you), and the stilted dialogue accompanied by painful performances.

Christian Bale is still surprisingly good, even surrounded by so much mediocrity, but one actor can only pull a film so far, especially when the film is focussed on the life of Mary, and so Jesus doesn't come into the film until about a third of the way through. Bale is really the reason I wanted to see this movie, and it's almost worth seeing just to see Bale's intense devotion to his character amidst such an absurd backdrop. You really have to feel bad for him, but also thankful that he got cast in American Psycho the year after this and shot to stardom instead of languishing in films like this for years to come.

Mary, Mother of Jesus is so devastatingly bad that at times it almost seems like a Monty Python parody of a Christian movie. Honestly, if you're moved by a single frame in this film then you are simply predisposed to enjoy it no matter what the quality, because this film is of the lowest caliber. It gets two stars for Bale's performance, and the rest gets zero.

4 out of 5 stars Good effort.......2007-01-10

It must be a very daunting task to try and flesh out a part on somebody who played such a major part in mankind's salvation with her humble assent to be the mother of the Messiah when her scriptural refrences are so few other than during the Nativity and early childhood of Jesus. So many times the writers get in the way of the story rather than let it play out in it's natural order. I feel the writers in this movie really tried to be true to the scripture that inspired it, but it can be so easy to stray from the spirit of what needs to be told when trying to flesh out characters, storylines, etc. The salavation story of Jesus and the part Mary played in it is so huge that trying to compress it into the short time required by this movie is almost impossible. Even the best movie ever done on Christ, "Jesus of Nazareth" was a 6 hour movie and it couldn't encompass everything either. That said, I did enjoy most of this film's attempt at widening our filmic knowledge of our Blessed Mother and, shortcomings aside, I'd still rather watch this than 90% of the drudge coming out of Hollywood today.

5 out of 5 stars Excellent Production.......2007-01-09

Top quality product, well produced, will enjoy watching again and again. Thanks Barbara

1 out of 5 stars Quite Unbiblical.......2006-07-07

I couldn't finish watching this movie because of the serious inconsistancies with Scripture. There were three advisors listed in the credits, two priests and a rabbi. I wonder how these Catholic priests allowed their names to be associated with this movie.

You can say it is inspirational but if key details are wrong and false, it will ultimately not lead you closer to the Real Jesus because the details are important and relate to the Incarnation as foretold in the Old Testament.

Showed Joseph angry, accusational and cruel about Mary's pregancy
Omitted Elizabeths greeting of Mary as "Mother of My Lord"
Implied Mary had pain at childbirth
Omitted presentation in the Temple
Showed Mary as the decision maker in going to Egypt
Implied by Jesus' questions that he didn't know he was God.

You can learn much more about the life of Jesus looking through the eyes of Mary when you pray the Rosary (which after all is simply the prayer of the Gospel).
Carreteras Secundarias
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • Father-Son Road Trip
  • for fernando ramallo fans
  • A Gently Beautiful Little Film with a Grand Story
Carreteras Secundarias
Starring: Antonio Resines , Fernando Ramallo , Maribel Verdú , Miriam Díaz Aroca , and Jesús Bonilla
Director: Emilio Martínez Lázaro
Manufacturer: Venevision
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ASIN: B0001DCYFK
Release Date: 2004-04-20

Description

Nominated for two Goya Awards, this entertaining story begins during the final days of the regime of General Francisco Franco. The lives of both father and son change dramatically when they abandon their normal lives for the gypsy life on the road making their home base in a small town in the interior of Spain. There, a beautiful girl catches their eye, awakening them and submerging them in a story full of drama and laugh out loud situations that ultimately reveal the complexity of both their personalities by making them reflect on themselves.

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars Father-Son Road Trip.......2007-07-04

I truly enjoyed this movie, as it was a refreshing break from your typical Hollywood fare. The box cover art is most likely designed to entice the many worldwide fans of Maribel Verdu, which are legion. Her entry seems rather late into the film even though her role is crucial as is that of Miriam Diaz Aroca playing the part of Estrella.

This is a father-son, coming to grips with each other and themselves road trip film. Antonio Resines plays the father who has some deep secrets and obsessions while he strives to make a buck in some rather odd ways. His son Felipe played by Fernando Ramallo is becoming a man and discovering all the faults of his father and his fathers past at the same time.

Even though the film was nominated for two Goya Awards, it is fairly apparent why it didn't win any. The movie for me was still as I said before fun to watch and better than most of what the American screen has to offer on any given day.

3 out of 5 stars for fernando ramallo fans.......2004-11-23

THIS IS A REVIEW OF THE FILM CARRETERAS SECUNDARIAS, NOT THE FILM SIEMPRE TE AMARE. For some reason Amazon has these two films confused.

This film suffers from a poor script and tacky 30's Hollywood music. A ne'er-do-well father and his son (Ramallo) wander the roads aimlessly in 70's Spain, living by various con-games. Ramallo is charming as usual, - he speaks Spanish in a very winning fashion. But the script has many incongruities, such as the son's most unlikely crush on an American girl who knows no Spanish. Also, the ending is out of a fairy tale - the father inherits money and his humiliating poverty ends. There is an arresting scene of an anti-Franco riot that is worth the price of the movie, if you don't pay too much.

As in many Latin films, there is a lot of obsessive seduction of girls and knowing smirks aplenty, for those who like that sort of thing. Nico and Dani, and also The Heart of the Warrior (not released yet in NTSC format) are better vehicles for Fernando Ramallo, who always effortlessly dominates any film he is in.

5 out of 5 stars A Gently Beautiful Little Film with a Grand Story.......2004-10-06

CARRETERAS SECUNDARIAS won many awards in 1997 when it was released in Spain, including some Goyas. Surprisingly it never made an impression in theatres there. But this is one of those sleeper movies that should be viewed by everyone who not only enjoys a good story well told, but also those who want to understand Spain in the final days of Franco's rule. There is much to be said about the delicacy in which director Emilio Martinez Lazaro has adapted the novel by Ignacio Martinez di Pison, electing to underplay the class differences between those born to wealth and the poor people of Spain: in this film less is said and more is felt.

Lozano (a brilliant performance by Antonio Resines) leads a gypsy life with his son Felipe (anther feather in Fernando Ramallo's cap and resume) since the death of his wife, apparently a woman his wealthy family never approved of and hence disinherited Lozano. The two try to keep up appearances of having 'class' when in effect they are destitute. Lozano's pride never falters as he sees himself as an Impresario to Estrella (Miriam Diaz Aroca of 'Belle Epoque'), a would-be opera singer who finally leaves Lozano for another man who promises a better career. Disillusioned, Lozano and Felipe hit the road and encounter a beauty named Paquita (Maribel Verdu whose many screen credits include 'Goya in Bordeaux', 'Belle Epoque') who herself is poor but understands survival. The three of them take off on money making schemes and a gypsy life that has its hilarious moments as well as moments of great tenderness. Along the way Felipe discovers passion, coming of age, and his first introduction to women through his sharing the love-generous Paquita with his father. Felipe encounters more of life in a student uprising against Franco's regime, falls in love with the daughter of an American soldier based in Zaragoza, and tastes the reality of becoming a man without direction, career, or ancestry. One of the trio's con games finally catches up with them and Lozano is jailed. The ending is a wonderful surprise and provides one of the more beautiful father/son relationship explorations on film. The photography is magnificent and if the musical score by Roque Banos is a bit overly grand, blame is on appropriation from Ravel et al! This is a terrific film and deserves as much attention in this country as it garnered in Spain. In Spanish with English subtitles.
Jesus' Son
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • A mess.
  • Fine Movie, Terrible translation of the book.
  • Great Indie Film
  • "I thought about mermaids."
  • Really Extraordinary Movie
Jesus' Son
Starring: Greg Germann , Holly Hunter , Denis Leary , Will Patton , and Dennis Hopper
Director: Alison Maclean
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00003CWS6
Release Date: 2001-01-30

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

Description

"Jesus' Son" is the story of a young man's circuitous journey from drug dependency and petty crime to a life redeemed by his startling discovery of compassion. Set in the drug subculture of the 1970's, a young man in his twenties (Billy Crudup) careens through his days getting stoned, stealing, or scamming a quick buck. He is driven by an overwhelming desire to help those around him, to save them from their often sorry fates, but he repeatedly fails. Almost by a miracle, redemption does come to the young man. It sneaks up on him almost imperceptibly, through barely observed lessons learned from a colorful parade of characters who range from a crazed, pill-popping hospital orderly (Jack Black), a down-on-his-luck-divorcee (Denis Leary), to a half-paralyzed woman (Holly Hunter) who teaches him about love. Bit by bit, the young man stumbles towards sobriety and lands a job at an assisted living facility where he discovers the depths of his own compassion for others, and the grace that comes with it.

Customer Reviews:

2 out of 5 stars A mess........2007-05-27

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? **

3 out of 5 stars Fine Movie, Terrible translation of the book........2007-03-21

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.

5 out of 5 stars Great Indie Film.......2007-02-01

I often confused this film with Drugstore Cowboy, but this film stands on it's own for it's more surreal quality to it. A memorable scene is when Billy Crudup's character is working in a hospital with Jack Black's character and some guy comes into the emergency room with a butcher knife through the eye. Great film about a young man's awkward journey into life.

2 out of 5 stars "I thought about mermaids.".......2006-10-24

That line from the film kind of sums up what was going through my mind while watching this snorefest. Okay, maybe snorefest is a bit harsh, but I will admit that I dozed off for a few minutes and definitely day-dreamed through at least a third of the film. I'm all for movies that remain somewhat plotless but explore more or less human interaction, but `Jesus' Son' was one of those films that didn't explore much of anything. Honestly if it weren't for Samantha Morton's wonderful performance I may have deemed this a pointless waste of my afternoon, but her performance alone made me happy to have at least sat through this once. Billy Crudup was terrible here. He has done much better in other films but here he just came off amateur.

As the nameless narrator Crudup gives us sequences of events that try and tell us who he is as a person but fail miserably to do so. We see him meet and fall in love with Michelle (Morton) and then watch them fail to clean up (their drug use). We watch him pop pills with Georgie (Black in a scene stealing role) who works as an orderly at the hospital our hero (should I call him that) works in. We see him kill some baby rabbits and peep on the Amish woman who lives near him. The problem is that none of these scenes, none of these events really establish any ground or make us care one bit for our narrator (well, I say `us' but I mean `me'...they didn't make me care about him at all). The acting on the parts of Morton, Black and Hunter are great but they are not enough to elevate this movie beyond a one time regret.

4 out of 5 stars Really Extraordinary Movie.......2006-06-01

The story of "Jesus' Son" is lifted from a series of short stories by author Denis Johnson. That explains the jostling and somewhat disjointed episodes of FH's (Billy Crudup) life. Given the subject, I think jostled and disjointed works to its credit.

"Jesus' Son" is a story about a man named FH. FH is a junkie. His girlfriend Michelle (Samantha Morton) introduces him to heroin and a lifestyle that's... well, disjointed, focused on just getting by. It's a tender bond born of a shared weakness. FH soon becomes a hardcore drug addict, taking (and breaking) anything he comes into contact with. Thus begins a series of comic and tragic episodes featuring a motley crew of supporting characters (played in part by Jack Black, Denis Leary, and Denis Hopper).

The movie represents drugs honestly. They aren't portrayed as evil, nor does the movie get caught up in naïve drug glorification. The drug sequences are surreal and comical. They even add depth to FH's experience, not just in terms of short term sensory perception, but his experience of tragedy and human deprivation. The movie contains one of the funniest episodes I've ever seen, where FH becomes an emergency room orderly. He and fellow orderly Georgie (Jack Black) use their position to score drugs. When the ER is visited by a man with a Rambo style survival knife sticking through his eye (says FH, trying to out-pun the ER staff: "Patient complains of a stabbing headache."), the local doctor refuses to touch it. Georgie doesn't have similar scruples (or medical training). He emerges from the operating room knife in hand, apparently after gripping the handle and pulling it out. When the man survives without brain damage, one of the ER staff asks him what it is he does. "I save lives," says Georgie. It's one of the funniest scenes I've ever seen, in any move, period.

When I see the drug scenes, I think of a quote by the late Hunter S. Thompson, "I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me." They work for FH, for a short time, until he realizes its give and take. He can't juggle the distractions of drugs with keeping a normal life, and through personal loss he finally appreciates what's happened to him, and sobers up. The ending isn't too sugary--FH learns through mistakes that had disastrous consequences. "Jesus' Son" is a really incredible movie. I highly recommend it.

Jesus' Son [Region 2]
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • A mess.
  • Fine Movie, Terrible translation of the book.
  • Great Indie Film
  • "I thought about mermaids."
  • Really Extraordinary Movie
Jesus' Son [Region 2]
Starring: Billy Crudup , Robert Michael Kelly , Torben Brooks , Dierdre Lewis , and Jimmy Moffit
Director: Alison Maclean
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

GenresGenres | DVD | Video | Action & Adventure | African American Cinema | Animation | Anime & Manga | Art House & International | Classics | Comedy | Cult Movies | Documentary | Drama | Educational | Fitness & Yoga | Gay & Lesbian | Horror | Kids & Family | Military & War | Music Video & Concerts | Musicals & Performing Arts | Mystery & Suspense | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Special Interests | Sports | Television | Westerns
Crudup, BillyCrudup, Billy | ( C ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Leary, DenisLeary, Denis | ( L ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Morton, SamanthaMorton, Samantha | ( M ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Shannon, Michael JShannon, Michael J | ( S ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Ventimiglia, JohnVentimiglia, John | ( V ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Maclean, AlisonMaclean, Alison | ( M ) | Directors | Stores | DVD | Video
Used DVDsUsed DVDs | Stores | DVD | Video | Action & Adventure | African American Cinema | Animation | Anime & Manga | Art House & International | Classics | Comedy | Cult Movies | Documentary | Drama | Educational | Fitness & Yoga | Gay & Lesbian | Horror | Kids & Family | Military & War | Music Video & Concerts | Musicals & Performing Arts | Mystery & Suspense | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Special Interests | Sports | Television | Westerns
( J )( J ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:
  1. Waking the Dead
  2. Jesus' Son: Stories by
  3. Grind
  4. Stage Beauty
  5. Drugstore Cowboy

ASIN: B00005KCA4

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

Customer Reviews:

2 out of 5 stars A mess........2007-05-27

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? **

3 out of 5 stars Fine Movie, Terrible translation of the book........2007-03-21

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.

5 out of 5 stars Great Indie Film.......2007-02-01

I often confused this film with Drugstore Cowboy, but this film stands on it's own for it's more surreal quality to it. A memorable scene is when Billy Crudup's character is working in a hospital with Jack Black's character and some guy comes into the emergency room with a butcher knife through the eye. Great film about a young man's awkward journey into life.

2 out of 5 stars "I thought about mermaids.".......2006-10-24

That line from the film kind of sums up what was going through my mind while watching this snorefest. Okay, maybe snorefest is a bit harsh, but I will admit that I dozed off for a few minutes and definitely day-dreamed through at least a third of the film. I'm all for movies that remain somewhat plotless but explore more or less human interaction, but `Jesus' Son' was one of those films that didn't explore much of anything. Honestly if it weren't for Samantha Morton's wonderful performance I may have deemed this a pointless waste of my afternoon, but her performance alone made me happy to have at least sat through this once. Billy Crudup was terrible here. He has done much better in other films but here he just came off amateur.

As the nameless narrator Crudup gives us sequences of events that try and tell us who he is as a person but fail miserably to do so. We see him meet and fall in love with Michelle (Morton) and then watch them fail to clean up (their drug use). We watch him pop pills with Georgie (Black in a scene stealing role) who works as an orderly at the hospital our hero (should I call him that) works in. We see him kill some baby rabbits and peep on the Amish woman who lives near him. The problem is that none of these scenes, none of these events really establish any ground or make us care one bit for our narrator (well, I say `us' but I mean `me'...they didn't make me care about him at all). The acting on the parts of Morton, Black and Hunter are great but they are not enough to elevate this movie beyond a one time regret.

4 out of 5 stars Really Extraordinary Movie.......2006-06-01

The story of "Jesus' Son" is lifted from a series of short stories by author Denis Johnson. That explains the jostling and somewhat disjointed episodes of FH's (Billy Crudup) life. Given the subject, I think jostled and disjointed works to its credit.

"Jesus' Son" is a story about a man named FH. FH is a junkie. His girlfriend Michelle (Samantha Morton) introduces him to heroin and a lifestyle that's... well, disjointed, focused on just getting by. It's a tender bond born of a shared weakness. FH soon becomes a hardcore drug addict, taking (and breaking) anything he comes into contact with. Thus begins a series of comic and tragic episodes featuring a motley crew of supporting characters (played in part by Jack Black, Denis Leary, and Denis Hopper).

The movie represents drugs honestly. They aren't portrayed as evil, nor does the movie get caught up in naïve drug glorification. The drug sequences are surreal and comical. They even add depth to FH's experience, not just in terms of short term sensory perception, but his experience of tragedy and human deprivation. The movie contains one of the funniest episodes I've ever seen, where FH becomes an emergency room orderly. He and fellow orderly Georgie (Jack Black) use their position to score drugs. When the ER is visited by a man with a Rambo style survival knife sticking through his eye (says FH, trying to out-pun the ER staff: "Patient complains of a stabbing headache."), the local doctor refuses to touch it. Georgie doesn't have similar scruples (or medical training). He emerges from the operating room knife in hand, apparently after gripping the handle and pulling it out. When the man survives without brain damage, one of the ER staff asks him what it is he does. "I save lives," says Georgie. It's one of the funniest scenes I've ever seen, in any move, period.

When I see the drug scenes, I think of a quote by the late Hunter S. Thompson, "I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me." They work for FH, for a short time, until he realizes its give and take. He can't juggle the distractions of drugs with keeping a normal life, and through personal loss he finally appreciates what's happened to him, and sobers up. The ending isn't too sugary--FH learns through mistakes that had disastrous consequences. "Jesus' Son" is a really incredible movie. I highly recommend it.

Jesus' Son
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • A mess.
  • Fine Movie, Terrible translation of the book.
  • Great Indie Film
  • "I thought about mermaids."
  • Really Extraordinary Movie
Jesus' Son
Starring: Billy Crudup , Robert Michael Kelly , Torben Brooks , Dierdre Lewis , and Jimmy Moffit
Director: Alison Maclean
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

GenresGenres | DVD | Video | Action & Adventure | African American Cinema | Animation | Anime & Manga | Art House & International | Classics | Comedy | Cult Movies | Documentary | Drama | Educational | Fitness & Yoga | Gay & Lesbian | Horror | Kids & Family | Military & War | Music Video & Concerts | Musicals & Performing Arts | Mystery & Suspense | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Special Interests | Sports | Television | Westerns
Crudup, BillyCrudup, Billy | ( C ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Leary, DenisLeary, Denis | ( L ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Morton, SamanthaMorton, Samantha | ( M ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Shannon, Michael JShannon, Michael J | ( S ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Ventimiglia, JohnVentimiglia, John | ( V ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Maclean, AlisonMaclean, Alison | ( M ) | Directors | Stores | DVD | Video
Used DVDsUsed DVDs | Stores | DVD | Video | Action & Adventure | African American Cinema | Animation | Anime & Manga | Art House & International | Classics | Comedy | Cult Movies | Documentary | Drama | Educational | Fitness & Yoga | Gay & Lesbian | Horror | Kids & Family | Military & War | Music Video & Concerts | Musicals & Performing Arts | Mystery & Suspense | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Special Interests | Sports | Television | Westerns
( J )( J ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:
  1. Waking the Dead
  2. Jesus' Son: Stories by
  3. Grind
  4. Stage Beauty
  5. Drugstore Cowboy

ASIN: B00008DDH3

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

Customer Reviews:

2 out of 5 stars A mess........2007-05-27

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? **

3 out of 5 stars Fine Movie, Terrible translation of the book........2007-03-21

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.

5 out of 5 stars Great Indie Film.......2007-02-01

I often confused this film with Drugstore Cowboy, but this film stands on it's own for it's more surreal quality to it. A memorable scene is when Billy Crudup's character is working in a hospital with Jack Black's character and some guy comes into the emergency room with a butcher knife through the eye. Great film about a young man's awkward journey into life.

2 out of 5 stars "I thought about mermaids.".......2006-10-24

That line from the film kind of sums up what was going through my mind while watching this snorefest. Okay, maybe snorefest is a bit harsh, but I will admit that I dozed off for a few minutes and definitely day-dreamed through at least a third of the film. I'm all for movies that remain somewhat plotless but explore more or less human interaction, but `Jesus' Son' was one of those films that didn't explore much of anything. Honestly if it weren't for Samantha Morton's wonderful performance I may have deemed this a pointless waste of my afternoon, but her performance alone made me happy to have at least sat through this once. Billy Crudup was terrible here. He has done much better in other films but here he just came off amateur.

As the nameless narrator Crudup gives us sequences of events that try and tell us who he is as a person but fail miserably to do so. We see him meet and fall in love with Michelle (Morton) and then watch them fail to clean up (their drug use). We watch him pop pills with Georgie (Black in a scene stealing role) who works as an orderly at the hospital our hero (should I call him that) works in. We see him kill some baby rabbits and peep on the Amish woman who lives near him. The problem is that none of these scenes, none of these events really establish any ground or make us care one bit for our narrator (well, I say `us' but I mean `me'...they didn't make me care about him at all). The acting on the parts of Morton, Black and Hunter are great but they are not enough to elevate this movie beyond a one time regret.

4 out of 5 stars Really Extraordinary Movie.......2006-06-01

The story of "Jesus' Son" is lifted from a series of short stories by author Denis Johnson. That explains the jostling and somewhat disjointed episodes of FH's (Billy Crudup) life. Given the subject, I think jostled and disjointed works to its credit.

"Jesus' Son" is a story about a man named FH. FH is a junkie. His girlfriend Michelle (Samantha Morton) introduces him to heroin and a lifestyle that's... well, disjointed, focused on just getting by. It's a tender bond born of a shared weakness. FH soon becomes a hardcore drug addict, taking (and breaking) anything he comes into contact with. Thus begins a series of comic and tragic episodes featuring a motley crew of supporting characters (played in part by Jack Black, Denis Leary, and Denis Hopper).

The movie represents drugs honestly. They aren't portrayed as evil, nor does the movie get caught up in naïve drug glorification. The drug sequences are surreal and comical. They even add depth to FH's experience, not just in terms of short term sensory perception, but his experience of tragedy and human deprivation. The movie contains one of the funniest episodes I've ever seen, where FH becomes an emergency room orderly. He and fellow orderly Georgie (Jack Black) use their position to score drugs. When the ER is visited by a man with a Rambo style survival knife sticking through his eye (says FH, trying to out-pun the ER staff: "Patient complains of a stabbing headache."), the local doctor refuses to touch it. Georgie doesn't have similar scruples (or medical training). He emerges from the operating room knife in hand, apparently after gripping the handle and pulling it out. When the man survives without brain damage, one of the ER staff asks him what it is he does. "I save lives," says Georgie. It's one of the funniest scenes I've ever seen, in any move, period.

When I see the drug scenes, I think of a quote by the late Hunter S. Thompson, "I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me." They work for FH, for a short time, until he realizes its give and take. He can't juggle the distractions of drugs with keeping a normal life, and through personal loss he finally appreciates what's happened to him, and sobers up. The ending isn't too sugary--FH learns through mistakes that had disastrous consequences. "Jesus' Son" is a really incredible movie. I highly recommend it.

The Animated Stories From the New Testament - Jesus, The Son of God
Average customer rating: Not rated
    The Animated Stories From the New Testament - Jesus, The Son of God

    Manufacturer: Nest
    ProductGroup: DVD
    Binding: DVD

    GenresGenres | DVD | Video | Action & Adventure | African American Cinema | Animation | Anime & Manga | Art House & International | Classics | Comedy | Cult Movies | Documentary | Drama | Educational | Fitness & Yoga | Gay & Lesbian | Horror | Kids & Family | Military & War | Music Video & Concerts | Musicals & Performing Arts | Mystery & Suspense | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Special Interests | Sports | Television | Westerns
    Used DVDsUsed DVDs | Stores | DVD | Video | Action & Adventure | African American Cinema | Animation | Anime & Manga | Art House & International | Classics | Comedy | Cult Movies | Documentary | Drama | Educational | Fitness & Yoga | Gay & Lesbian | Horror | Kids & Family | Military & War | Music Video & Concerts | Musicals & Performing Arts | Mystery & Suspense | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Special Interests | Sports | Television | Westerns
    ASIN: B000BHL3S0
    Jesus, The Son Of God - The Animated Stories From The New Testament - NEST Complete Learning System Interactive DVD
    Average customer rating: Not rated
      Jesus, The Son Of God - The Animated Stories From The New Testament - NEST Complete Learning System Interactive DVD

      Manufacturer: NEST
      ProductGroup: DVD
      Binding: DVD

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      ASIN: B000H8BMI4

      Product Description

      Meet the 12-year-old Jesus and hear the lessons He delivers to the temple elders. People often found themselves speechless when they came face-to-face with wisdom of Jesus--from the learned rabbis in the temple who astonished at the words of a 12-year-old Jesus, to the victory over Satan who unsuccessfully tempted the Savior even after He had grown pale with hunger from a 40-day fast. This story begins with Jesus early years and follows with his triumph over Satan, marking the beginning of the ministry of Jesus, the Son of God.
      Hombres de Roca
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        Hombres de Roca
        Starring: Rodolfo de Anda , Sonia Infante , Víctor Parra , Arturo Martínez , and Maura Monti
        Director: Raúl de Anda hijo
        Manufacturer: Excalibur
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        1. Un Hombre Peligroso

        ASIN: B00028G7EI
        Release Date: 2004-08-03
        Jesus' Son [Region 2]
        Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
        • A mess.
        • Fine Movie, Terrible translation of the book.
        • Great Indie Film
        • "I thought about mermaids."
        • Really Extraordinary Movie
        Jesus' Son [Region 2]
        Starring: Billy Crudup , Robert Michael Kelly , Torben Brooks , Dierdre Lewis , and Jimmy Moffit
        Director: Alison Maclean
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        ASIN: B00005ARJY

        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

        Customer Reviews:

        2 out of 5 stars A mess........2007-05-27

        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? **

        3 out of 5 stars Fine Movie, Terrible translation of the book........2007-03-21

        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.

        5 out of 5 stars Great Indie Film.......2007-02-01

        I often confused this film with Drugstore Cowboy, but this film stands on it's own for it's more surreal quality to it. A memorable scene is when Billy Crudup's character is working in a hospital with Jack Black's character and some guy comes into the emergency room with a butcher knife through the eye. Great film about a young man's awkward journey into life.

        2 out of 5 stars "I thought about mermaids.".......2006-10-24

        That line from the film kind of sums up what was going through my mind while watching this snorefest. Okay, maybe snorefest is a bit harsh, but I will admit that I dozed off for a few minutes and definitely day-dreamed through at least a third of the film. I'm all for movies that remain somewhat plotless but explore more or less human interaction, but `Jesus' Son' was one of those films that didn't explore much of anything. Honestly if it weren't for Samantha Morton's wonderful performance I may have deemed this a pointless waste of my afternoon, but her performance alone made me happy to have at least sat through this once. Billy Crudup was terrible here. He has done much better in other films but here he just came off amateur.

        As the nameless narrator Crudup gives us sequences of events that try and tell us who he is as a person but fail miserably to do so. We see him meet and fall in love with Michelle (Morton) and then watch them fail to clean up (their drug use). We watch him pop pills with Georgie (Black in a scene stealing role) who works as an orderly at the hospital our hero (should I call him that) works in. We see him kill some baby rabbits and peep on the Amish woman who lives near him. The problem is that none of these scenes, none of these events really establish any ground or make us care one bit for our narrator (well, I say `us' but I mean `me'...they didn't make me care about him at all). The acting on the parts of Morton, Black and Hunter are great but they are not enough to elevate this movie beyond a one time regret.

        4 out of 5 stars Really Extraordinary Movie.......2006-06-01

        The story of "Jesus' Son" is lifted from a series of short stories by author Denis Johnson. That explains the jostling and somewhat disjointed episodes of FH's (Billy Crudup) life. Given the subject, I think jostled and disjointed works to its credit.

        "Jesus' Son" is a story about a man named FH. FH is a junkie. His girlfriend Michelle (Samantha Morton) introduces him to heroin and a lifestyle that's... well, disjointed, focused on just getting by. It's a tender bond born of a shared weakness. FH soon becomes a hardcore drug addict, taking (and breaking) anything he comes into contact with. Thus begins a series of comic and tragic episodes featuring a motley crew of supporting characters (played in part by Jack Black, Denis Leary, and Denis Hopper).

        The movie represents drugs honestly. They aren't portrayed as evil, nor does the movie get caught up in naïve drug glorification. The drug sequences are surreal and comical. They even add depth to FH's experience, not just in terms of short term sensory perception, but his experience of tragedy and human deprivation. The movie contains one of the funniest episodes I've ever seen, where FH becomes an emergency room orderly. He and fellow orderly Georgie (Jack Black) use their position to score drugs. When the ER is visited by a man with a Rambo style survival knife sticking through his eye (says FH, trying to out-pun the ER staff: "Patient complains of a stabbing headache."), the local doctor refuses to touch it. Georgie doesn't have similar scruples (or medical training). He emerges from the operating room knife in hand, apparently after gripping the handle and pulling it out. When the man survives without brain damage, one of the ER staff asks him what it is he does. "I save lives," says Georgie. It's one of the funniest scenes I've ever seen, in any move, period.

        When I see the drug scenes, I think of a quote by the late Hunter S. Thompson, "I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me." They work for FH, for a short time, until he realizes its give and take. He can't juggle the distractions of drugs with keeping a normal life, and through personal loss he finally appreciates what's happened to him, and sobers up. The ending isn't too sugary--FH learns through mistakes that had disastrous consequences. "Jesus' Son" is a really incredible movie. I highly recommend it.

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