It'd be better if the movie knew what it was trying to say

By Amy Diaz
Jesus' Son (Rated R)

Billy Crudup is either a slacker philosopher or a real fuck up in Jesus' Son, a movie about a whole bunch of stuff and nothing much.

Crudup is FuckHead (really, this is the character's name), a drifter junkie. The story follows roughly five years of his life - through addiction and rehab, through love and all sorts of pain. The characters always seem to be on the move, as uncomfortable in one town as they are in their own skins. FH seems a little more comfortable with himself, but terribly bothered by the general wackiness of the world. He displays this anxiety in a sad, laconic way that is oddly humorous in the same way ironic tragedy is bitterly funny. The one thing that snaps FH out of his detached place in the world is his relationship with Michelle (Samantha Morton). She makes him happier and drives him nuttier than anything else in his very odd world.

It's hard to further describe the plot because there really is no central story to Jesus' Son. The movie actually starts about a third of the way into the story, circles back to the beginning and then runs to the end. This device doesn't really confuse matters but it doesn't exactly lend itself to any kind of cohesive storyline either. The movie is told the way people tell a story: disjointed and confused, with sudden leaps forward or back in time. Interesting, but weird.

What this movie lacks in coherent plot it makes up for in great performances. From Jack Black's role as a perpetually stoned hospital orderly to Morton's flaky and sad Michelle to the bit players, the actors never missed a step.

This movie tries to do something, to say something, very important. I think I would like Jesus' Son better if I knew what that was.