Making a movie about a school shooter in 2026 is certainly a choice, however director Oscar Boyson who also co-wrote the script with Ricky Camilleri not only crafts this movie with careful precision and execution, but does so with tact and care. While the story is different from the movies on the same subject matter, it does focus on the horrors and tragedies that can follow in these cases but also tells the impactful story of what connection can meet to someone. Our Hero, Balthazar is one of the hidden gems of the year that truly redefines expectations and expectations.
The movie focuses on Balthazar (Jaeden Martell) as he is wealthy, and his mother Nicole (Jennifer Ehle) gets Balthazar a life coach Antony (Noah Centineo) to try and help him get through life and associate properly, be friends with the right people and so forth. There is just something about Balthazar that is bored and unable to connect to people properly, he’s edgy in the wrong way, and that is certainly part of the problem. However, he is also unhealthily obsessed with his classmate, Eleanor (Pippa Knowles) who doesn’t want to give him the time of day (understandably) and spends the rest of his free time pretending to care about gun laws creating fake POV videos of himself pretending he wants to create change over live stream that he posts. However, during one of these live streams, he is privately messaged by a stranger, who we later learn is Solomon (Asa Butterfield) who openly admits he is planning to commit a school shooting and taunting Balthazar with footage of other shootings.
Balthazar decides he has to take it upon himself to stop this tragic event from happening, but also doesn’t want to go through the proper channels so he decides to create a fake woman to entice Solomon into friendship so he can meet him, befriend him, and stop him from creating this heinous act. It truly is a flawed plan, but somehow well intentioned and endearing despite every character being incredibly unlikable and horrible.
What makes this work, despite nearly everything in its power ensuring it should not work, is the incredible script from Camilleri and Boyson that takes the terrifying reality of what is a way too often occurrence in the United States and puts a different spin on the movie. There is no way to discuss if his plan works accordingly or not, without spoiling the entire movie, so we won’t go there, but what is crafted is nothing shy of sublime. A horrifying look at the reality that we are living in that doesn’t shy away from any aspect, whether it goes into the grizzly aftermath or not.
Atop of the incredible and powerful script at play here, Butterfield and Martell are remarkable, being completely engaged and engrossed in their performances showing sides of them that audiences have not been seen before. Butterfield fully is submerged into this deep, depressive, disturbed character that is transformed physically unlike anything we’ve seen before and truly gets lost in the roll – from seeing him when he was younger and growing up on screens in front of us essentially, this new role truly shows off his prowess. Conversely, Jaeden Martell is transcendent in this role, he becomes so lost in the roll it is hard to see where the actor ends and the character begins other than him being rather reprehensible. He is so overtaken by this role and character, that his performance is haunting as the audience truly believes everything he is saying and doing, even when it is rather disturbing and callous – while Butterfield is more disturbing as a character throughout, Martell is also deeply flawed.
Our Hero, Balthazar may not be a crowd pleaser or an easy watch in the slightest but the story it tells and the movie it engages with is important. Martell and Butterfield are exceptional in their roles, that Boyson and Camilleri bring to life, with incredible direction by Boyson that helps further captivate this brilliant and terrifying film. Our Hero, Balthazr is a difficult bleak watch, that most likely requires a cold shower after viewing but is essential viewing and a benchmark for everyone involved.
