Jesus' Son
"Jesus' Son" is the story of a young man's circuitous journey from drug dependency and petty crime to a life redeemed by his startling discovery of compassion. Set in the drug subculture of the 1970's, a young man in his twenties (Billy Crudup) careens through his days getting stoned, stealing, or scamming a quick buck. He is driven by an overwhelming desire to help those around him, to save them from their often sorry fates, but he repeatedly fails. Almost by a miracle, redemption does come to the young man. 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 (Jack Black), a down-on-his-luck-divorcee (Denis Leary), to a half-paralyzed woman (Holly Hunter) who teaches him about love. Bit by bit, the young man 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.