"Our Hero, Balthazar": Inspecting Youth Culture and Online Performative Emotion

"Our Hero, Balthazar", directed by Oscar Boyson and starring Jaeden Martell, offers a story that dives deep into the online performative emotions of today's youth. Our main character, Balthazar, lives in a world where genuine emotion has taken a backseat to dramatic exhibitions for an online audience.

Balthazar is a privileged child from New York City who spends his time acting out dramatic emotional scenes and posting them online. His dramatic performance often consists of crocodile tears shed to gain attention in a world overwhelmed by online content. His recorded sobs might be mistaken for genuine hurting, but they arise from a place of calculated pretense rather than real distress.

This film neatly captures the extent to which the internet and social media have bred a generation of youth for whom everything is performance. Martell's character shows that broadcasting emotions, especially crying, has become both a competition and a currency in the digital age.

The story takes a dark turn when Balthazar posts a video expressing sympathy for school shooting victims and starts communicating with a user claiming to be a school shooter. However, Balthazar's motives for his actions remain speculative: is he trying to prevent another tragedy, or does he see a kindred spirit in the supposed school shooter?

As Balthazar embarks on a journey to meet this anonymous user in Fort Worth, Texas, the movie transforms into an odd-ball buddy film. The persona behind the online handle turns out to be Solomon, a disturbed young adult, brilliantly portrayed by Asa Butterfield. Through this friendship, the movie contemplates the motivations of lonely young men in the digital age, echoing a tragic cultural phenomenon.

Striking a balance between topicality and realism, "Our Hero, Balthazar" paints a compelling picture of a disenfranchised middle-class youth culture. In this era, where exhibitionism has been glorified above reality, Martell's and Butterfield's characters stand as echoing symbols of a troubled youth culture that thrives in the virtual world.