OUR HERO, BALTHAZAR movie poster | ©2026 Picturehouse

Rating: R
Stars: Jaeden Martell, Asa Butterfield, Chris Bauer, Becky Ann Baker, Avan Jogia, Anna Baryshnikov, Pippa Knowles, Noah Centineo, Jennifer Ehle
Writers: Ricky Camilleri & Oscar Boyson
Director: Oscar Boyson
Distributor: Picturehouse
Release Date: March 27, 2026 (New York), April 3, 2026 (Los Angeles), subsequent (wider theatrical)

OUR HERO, BALTHAZAR is an intriguing if occasionally generalizing look at the nexus of gun culture, the Internet and performative behavior, especially through the lens of youth.

We meet Balthazar (Jaeden Martell) as he is recording himself weeping into his cellphone about how lonely he is – but when the recording stops, so do the tears.

Balthazar, or “Balthy,” as he prefers to be called, is an ultra-wealthy high school senior in Manhattan. His father is with his “new family in Westchester,” but he still funds the high lifestyle of Balthazar and his political fundraiser mom (Jennifer Ehle).

Balthazar is fascinated by school shootings, along with his own ability to effortlessly fake-cry. He doesn’t want to commit a massacre himself, but he’s chatting online with Deathdealer_16, who claims to be planning one.

Balthy’s classmate crush Eleanor (Pippa Knowles), a scholarship student, sincerely wants to stop school shootings. When his efforts to impress Eleanor backfire, Balthy resolves to stop Deathdealer_16.

To this end, Balthy uses his expertise in creating deepfakes to craft a sexy female online persona to catfish Deathdealer_16, thereby learning his location and tracking him down.

Deathdealer_16 turns out to be Solomon (Asa Butterfield), a young man living in a mobile home in north Texas with his loving grandmother (Becky Ann Baker).

Solomon works at a gas station convenience store. His formerly incarcerated dad Beaver (Chris Bauer) is running a marketing scam involving ostensibly testosterone-enhancing powder. Beaver is bullying Solomon into becoming a salesman for the product, which means the young man has to lay out cash to purchase canisters for sale.

For a while, OUR HERO, BALTHAZAR plays as an offbeat, mismatched buddy comedy, where a collision of economic class, social conventions and intentions simultaneously enthrall and baffle Balthy and Solomon.

But, to paraphrase the famous Chekhovian quote, if a weapon shows up in the first act, we have a pretty good idea it won’t be absent by the third act.

To the credit of director Oscar Boyson and his co-writer Ricky Camilleri, we can’t predict where this is all heading, except that general disaster looms. They manage to cover a great deal of credible ground in examining a whole bunch of factors (none of which involve classroom bullying) that can lead to guns being fired.

The filmmakers also generate consistent suspense about Balthy and Solomon’s motivations, many of which they are unaware of themselves. As each new situation arises, we never know which way either will jump.

Martell’s ability to turn on a time and Butterfield’s capacity to start emotions in one place and evolve them so that they move into another both serve the film brilliantly, and Bauer is impressive as Solomon’s hearty conman father.

Where OUR HERO, BALTHAZAR may get into some tricky territory, at least for some, is its suggestion that a lot of people who publicly protest school shootings (or anything else) may be faking their outrage for their own purposes. That is no doubt the case with some folks, but that’s no reason to dismiss others out of hand.

Eleanor is depicted as being honorable, but so much is made of her being at the school on scholarship – and there is quasi-name-checking of a real-world Democratic politician – that it seems like OUR HERO, BALTHAZAR wants us to disregard anything, helpful or not, said by the rich. Money can and does corrupt, but it doesn’t necessarily invalidate.

However, OUR HERO, BALTHAZAR is definitely in favor of taking a closer look at why anybody says or does anything, and that is a stance worth support. It otherwise stands as a set of persuasive character studies.

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