News spoke with Our Hero, Balthazar director Oscar Boyson and Ricky Camilleri, who produced and co-wrote the film with Boyson. The duo discussed finding humor in serious subject matter, their young cast, and the film’s themes. The film is out in New York City theaters now and in Los Angeles on April 3.
“A headlong race through a world where success can be measured in likes and tragedy has become content, Our Hero, Balthazar follows two neglected teens thrown together by a chance online encounter. Privileged yet lonely New Yorker Balthy (Jaeden Martell) Malone dreams of becoming a hero, while struggling Texan Solomon Jackson (Asa Butterfield) seeks recognition by posting violent threats. When Balthy, in an act of misguided heroism, travels to Texas in an attempt to befriend Solomon and avert a possible tragedy, he is drawn into a dangerous and thrilling new world. Despite their differences, both find refuge from their crushing loneliness in each other’s company, but for all Balthy’s good intentions, his decisions are driving them close the precipice of disaster,” says the official synopsis.
Tyler Treese: Oscar, I watched Matt Johnson’s The Dirties recently, which has similar subject matter. What struck me about both films was how funny they start out and then how unsettling they become over time, and how organic that shift feels. Can you speak to kind of threading that line with the subject matter and finding humor in these situations while also showing a very stark reality by the end?
Oscar Boyson: Sure. I mean, I think one thing that binds Ricky and I together as creative partners and co-writers, and friends is being able to say like, this is really sad. Or some of the some of the tragedies that are happening in this country. I think maybe a trend towards a certain kind of young man, whether they’re violent or not is really tragic, but there’s also something usually going on right next to it that is deeply hilarious.
And I think that we just don’t like movies that are that are super serious, especially if they’re gonna try and tackle an issue or try and confront something going on in contemporary America. Something that we see in the news, those movies that try to get really moralistic about their message.
Ricky Camilleri: Finger waggers.
Boyson: Yeah. A big part of the inspiration here was like, nobody wants to talk about some of this stuff that we all know is bad. Instead of saying we are outta ways to talk about it too, what about approaching it with humor? And that was very inspiring to us. At the same time, if you’re gonna make a movie that circles some of these issues…
Camilleri: Someone’s gotta get hurt.
Boyson: Yeah, exactly.
Ricky, I was curious about your thoughts on what led you to want to explore the internet’s impact on youth. Because it seems that people are lonelier more than ever, despite being more connected. It is really fascinating, and you guys touch on that throughout the film.
Ricky Camilleri: I think that the internet isn’t the… you know, a book was written in the early nineties called Bowling Alone, and that was about this sort of rising loneliness epidemic in the United States. And that was, you know, due to television and just due to certain sort of…
Oscar Boyson: The decay of these community groups.
Camilleri: Yeah, bowling leagues, church, church groups. My dad was in a softball league when I was growing up. That was a part of his job. A lot of that comes from unions. A lot of that comes from companies who actually care about their employees versus just looking for the next round of layoffs so they can do stock buybacks, which is the majority of companies these days. And so the disintegration of the community space really begins in the eighties and early nineties and tracks more towards the economy than I think it just does the internet, though, the internet, like so many others, or the internet just kind of exacerbates everything and expediates it a little bit more. So I wouldn’t blame the internet alone. We just happen to be living in the age of the internet right now. And so that’s why the movie takes place there.
Oscar, I wanted to ask you about Jaeden Martel. He’s such a great talent. What made you want to have him in this starring role? I saw he was a producer as well, so how was it just getting to see him as a collaborator?
Boyson: Oh, it was amazing. We had a very short list of young guys who I thought could do itand Jaeden was one of the people that I spoke to. He just had a very deep grasp on the material and a tremendous curiosity. You know, I think you want both somebody who understands it and is ready to make some choices, but also someone who is curious and wants to ask questions, so that it can be better.
But then you get on set with Jaeden, and you stick like a 35 millimeter lens up in his face, and you’re like, wow, this guy has all kinds of things going on behind the eyes, and he’s got all kinds of tricks that you don’t really see until you have a cinema lens right up in front of his face. So it was everything that I was hoping it would be in terms of a collaboration with the actor, but also it was exhilarating. I feel like we’re looking at the birth of a movie star here.
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