'Our Hero, Balthazar' Review
- Peter Gray
- 4 days ago
- 2 min read
Release Date: 04/03/26 [Cinemas]
Genre: Comedy. Drama. Thriller.
MPAA: Rated R.
Distributor: Picturehouse.
The Verdict: A Must-See
There are films that entertain, films that provoke - and then there are films like Our Hero, Balthazar that quietly burrow under your skin and refuse to leave. Directed by Oscar Boyson, this assured debut is less interested in giving answers than in exposing the uncomfortable questions we tend to scroll past. It’s a film about loneliness in its most modern form - the kind filtered through screens, privilege, neglect, and the performance of connection - and it establishes Boyson as a filmmaker with a sharp eye for emotional contradiction.
At the centre are two boys who, on paper, could not be more different. Balthy, played with unnerving control by Jaeden Martell, is a wealthy Manhattan teen who treats empathy like content, posting tearful videos that feel as calculated as they are hollow. Across the country, Solomon - brought to volatile, heartbreaking life by Asa Butterfield - is a restless, neglected young man whose online threats of violence are less about intent and more about being noticed. When Balthy latches onto Solomon as a kind of self-appointed “project,” travelling to Texas in the belief he can save him, the film sets in motion a relationship that is as uneasy as it is compelling.
What follows is a delicate tonal balancing act that Boyson and co-writer Ricky Camilleri handle with impressive restraint. There’s an undercurrent of absurdity - Balthy’s saviour complex is often darkly funny in its cluelessness - but it never undercuts the creeping dread that builds as their connection deepens. Crucially, the film resists sensationalism. It’s not interested in the spectacle of violence, but in the emotional and psychological pathways that lead there - the missed signals, the cries for help disguised as noise, and the dangerous gap between intention and impact.
As Balthy steps out of his pristine, curated world and into Solomon’s chaotic reality, the film visually and thematically collapses the distance between them. Despite their vastly different circumstances, both are shaped by absence - one emotional, one physical - and their bond begins to blur those boundaries in ways that feel both authentic and alarming. Martell’s tightly wound performance finds its perfect counterpoint in Butterfield’s jittery unpredictability, and together they create a dynamic that is equal parts tender, uncomfortable, and quietly combustible.
What lingers most about Our Hero, Balthazar is its refusal to moralise. This is not a story about a clear-cut villain, but about a young man who believes he’s doing something good - and the devastating consequences that can follow. By the time the film reaches its haunting final moments, it leaves you not with resolution, but with reflection. It’s messy, unsettling, and at times darkly funny, but it’s also deeply human. You may not walk away entertained in the traditional sense - but you will walk away thinking, and that feels far more essential.
