Jesus' Son (1999)

JESUS' SON is the intense, edgy, often hilarious story of a young man's circuitous journey from drug dependency and petty crime to a life redeemed by this startling discovery of compassion. The story is set in the drug subculture of the 1970's, and it's protagonist -- a young man in his twenties -- careens through his days getting stoned, stealing, or scamming a quick buck. Through it all, he tries to make sense of the mutually destructive passion he shares with a beautiful woman named Michelle. He is also driven by an overwhelming desire to help those around him, so save them from their often-sorry fates, but he repeatedly fails. (He certainly fails with Michelle). Almost by a miracle, redemption does come to him. It sneaks up on him almost imperceptibly, through barely observed lessons learned from a colorful parade of characters who range from a crazed, pill-popping hospital orderly, who takes more drugs than he dispenses; a down-on-his-luck-divorce whose only revenge against misfortune is to destroy the snug suburban home he used to share with his wife; to a half-paralyzed woman he meets in rehab who teaches him about love (and who proves to be a surprisingly nimble dance partner). Whomever he meets and wherever he goes, his attempts to prove his worth are either oddly touching, farcically futile or often both simultaneously. Bit by bit, however, he stumbles towards sobriety and lands a job at an assisted living facility where he discovers the depths of his own compassion for others, and the grace that comes with it. He also begins to write the hospital newsletter, providing him a creative outlet for his earned observations about life, love and loss.