Norma Farley Bodie takes a look at Oscar Boyson’s dark comedy-drama, Our Hero, Balthazar.
“We’re fighting for our lives here.” This is the catchphrase, the battle cry even, of the titular character, Balthazar Malone (Jaeden Martell). Our so-called teenage “hero” practises the line over and over, reducing himself to forced tears as he records selfie videos decrying mass shootings in American schools. This emotion is nothing but a ploy to impress the smartest girl in his class, Eleanor (Pippa Knowles), who is genuinely protesting the violence and commercial industry it has spawned.
Balthazar lives in a luxurious Manhattan apartment overlooking the city. He has it all: a life coach (Noah Centineo) to bring him out of his shell, smartphone recording equipment, and every material comfort imaginable. Except parents. His father is absent, while his mother (Jennifer Ehle) would rather work in Washington than stay home with “Balty” for his birthday.
Determined to win Eleanor’s affection, Balty tries a new plan to impersonate a “sicko” online. He believes he can stop a potential mass shooter he has connected with, a seemingly dangerous and lonely young man. However, his idea of what it means to be a hero does not translate to Eleanor. Although impressed with his apartment, she condemns this somewhat delusional plan.
Rejected on two fronts for his birthday weekend, Balty impulsively travels to a small Texas town to befriend and hopefully deter this potential killer. In a trailer park, Solomon (Asa Butterfield) lives with his grandmother (Becky Ann Baker), who is about to be evicted. Fired from his dead-end job, he has a notebook containing diagrams of the local school. However, Solomon welcomes Balty as a newfound friend. In order to impress Balty, Solomon shows him how to shoot his array of guns, something that they bond over and genuinely excites Balty. Their unlikely friendship becomes increasingly complicated as the two young men from radically different worlds struggle to find their place in either.
This is an impressive debut feature by Oscar Boyson, an independent film producer whose credits include Frances Ha, Good Time, and Uncut Gems. He co-wrote this screenplay with Ricky Camilleri, and the result is a dark, often uncomfortable comedy that takes aim at performative activism, social-media culture, gun violence, and the widening class divide in American society.
The performances of the young cast are excellent. Jaeden Martell is whollyconvincing. However, Solomon is embodied particularly brilliantly by Asa Butterfield, best known to audiences in Netflix's Sex Education, and before that as the eight-year-old Bruno, the son of the German Commandant, in the 2008 film The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.
To avoid all spoilers, let’s just say that things get out of control, and Balthazar sums up the aftermath in a television interview. Just as in the opening, he looks straight into the camera, tears in his eyes, repeating the words he has practised so many times:“We’re fighting for our lives here.”
Our Hero, Balthazar screened as part of the Galway Film Fleadh 2026, where it was presented as an Irish premiere with a post-screening discussion.
