We’re approaching three decades of school shootings in America, and it still seems like a subject the movies aren’t quite sure how to handle. Gus Van Sant’s Elephant is firmly part of the canon, but not much else that comes to mind. Our Hero, Balthazar attempts to make its mark on the subgenre with a story of two lonely young men lost in their own distinct ways amid the violence. Unfortunately, the result is a borderline unbearable heap of cynicism.

When we meet Balthazar (Jaeden Martell), he’s weeping dramatically about loneliness. It immediately feels so contrived you don’t need to see the camera and ring light to know it’s total bullshit. This is apparently how the wealthy Manhattan teen hopes to find his 15 minutes of TikTok fame. Posturing with a face full of snot and tears. 

When another lonely boy, Solomon (Asa Butterfield), starts trolling his comments, insisting he’s about to commit a school shooting, Balthazar sees opportunity. Specifically, the perfect opportunity to gain even more notoriety and impress his politically active crush. He decides he’s going to find this kid in real life and stop the shooting from happening. Things, of course, do not go remotely according to plan.

While this is writer/director Oscar Boyson’s first feature, his producing track record is full of gems like Frances Ha, Good Time, and Uncut Gems. Seeing the kind of projects he’s drawn to, his style dancing between realism and absurdity makes a lot of sense. He’s playing a bit with the camera, interspersing strange POV shots and dramatic angles throughout what’s otherwise a fairly naturalistic approach.

He gives his young actors room to play, too. Martell especially seems to have fun leaning into Balthazar’s alien nature. He takes the emotional beats to the extreme and experiments with his own lanky physicality. In one scene, Balthazar and his crush, Eleanor, play victims of a mass shooting as part of a schoolwide training exercise. Mid-simulation, he flips onto his belly, feet kicking, head propped up in his hands like a girl at a slumber party to make small talk with her. The choice is so distinct, one of the film’s rare nuggets of gold.

As engaging as some of these moments may be, nothing can save the film from itself. It’s about loneliness and violence and the internet and trolling and incels and masculinity and modernity. And yet, it doesn’t really seem to know how to engage with any of it. That means it’s ultimately about none of it. 

Balthazar’s relationships are barely fleshed out, making his strange behavior all the harder to accept. He makes these fake crying videos, which could only succeed if he could sell them as earnest. Then, bafflingly, he tells any and everyone he’s faking the tears. He attempts to make out with Eleanor while playing footage of a school shooting, but the film chalks it up to a simple attempt to connect. A sociopathic move by any measure. Still, the movie chalks it up as a simple attempt to connect. If Our Hero, Balthazar wants to get away with this kind of insanity, it actually needs to spend the time digging into Balthazar’s head.

Yes, it’s clear that an intense need for attention and validation drives him. But that barely begins to explain his choices. The lack of understanding makes everything ring hollow. It dials the film’s seemingly bleak outlook on the world and the young people in it up to 11. The characters remind me of the worst bits of TikTok sketch comedy — videos supposedly satirizing a common personality type that veer wildly from reality. How can you satirize a type of person who doesn’t exist at all? 

Its grim thesis seems to be that all the violence is everyone’s fault and no one’s. The only person who authentically cares ends up shunted ineffectively to the sidelines. It sneers in the face of people like David Hogg and the protest movements led by young people that successfully advocated for change. Maybe it thinks all their work is futile and weak compared to what the most deranged of us will do for self-serving attention. I’m honestly not sure. I just wish Balthazar either had more to say or was better at saying it.

Our Hero, Balthazar opens in limited release March 27.

Our Hero, Balthazar Trailer: