Chicago Reader52%
Review: Our Hero, Balthazar 67%
By Kyle Logan91%
7/15/2026, 2:00:00 PM
Topics: Film Review
Keywords: Listings, Reader Recommended
BS Summary: This article contains 16 faulty reasoning types, including Negativity Bias, Optimism Bias, and Ad Hominem, with Biased Writer Voice as the most egregious example at 72.1% saturation with 204 hits. Analysis detected 691 faulty-reasoning hits from 283 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 60.9% and a BS Rank of 67% (6,758 of 20,097 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 66.40% of the article peer group.
This may just be the year of the school shooter comedy.
Hot on the heels of another dark comedy I won’t name, <em>Our Hero, Balthazar</em> serves up big laughs in a film ostensibly centered on the murder of young people.
The premise is simple enough: Balthazar (Jaeden Martell) attempts to befriend would-be school shooter Solomon (Asa Butterfield) so that he won’t go through with the killing.
Balthazar isn’t actually a good guy, though.
He’s an ultrawealthy Manhattanite who regularly fakes tears for likes and only becomes interested in gun violence to impress a girl.
By contrast, Solomon, outside his online threats, is almost too genuine in his real-life interactions.
But rather than just being an uncomplicated, misunderstood sweetheart, Solomon is a creep, too; he’s talked to a coworker about which anime characters he thinks are hot and (more egregiously) the porn his father starred in.
Together, Martell and Butterfield build upon the already strong writing from cowriter-director Oscar Boyson and cowriter Ricky Camilleri to create a contrast of humor and dangerous tension.
The central duo is aided by a similarly brilliant supporting cast.
Most interestingly, former heartthrobs Noah Centineo and Avan Jogia make a case for adding their names to the illustrious pretty-boy–to–character-actor pipeline if they follow the paths set out for them here.
The film also looks great courtesy of cinematographer Christopher Messina and features a distinct score from James William Blades that I can only attempt to describe as sounding like abrasive electronic wind chimes.
All these qualities save <em>Our Hero, Balthazar </em>from becoming an empty provocation and deliver what may just be a future cult classic. <em>R, 96 min.</em>
<em><a href="https://facets.org/programs/our-hero-balthazar/">Screening Thu 7/23, 7 PM, Facets</a></em>
Analysis
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