Some indie films seem to exist as exercises in strangeness, just to see how far they can go-and how long audiences will watch before screaming and running up the aisles. I stuck with Hesher till...

Happily, Hesher never lays things out too clearly. Just as you never know where he came from, it's hard to grasp where he's going, or even what he's doing in the moment. But you know he fits somewhere. And that's satisfaction enough.

Like a knock-off of Chuck Palahniuk produced by people raised only on Sundance films, "Hesher" is a mess.

It's a risky move to make a movie with a protagonist as unlikable as Hesher does, yet that gamble paid off in this unconventional coming-of-age movie.