The latter element joins with Crudup's excellent acting to make this deliberately scruffy tale a worthwhile experience if you can handle its explicitly sordid subplots.
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Jesus' Son surprises me with moments of wry humor, poignancy, sorrow and wildness. It has a sequence as funny as any I've seen this year.
83
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
If the result doesn't make dazzling watching, it nonetheless has the power to haunt.
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Another grotty drama about junkie love? Well, yes...I make an exception for Jesus' Son.
80
VarietyTodd McCarthy
VarietyTodd McCarthy
An intermittently compelling and occasionally hilarious road movie.
It has a nobility and modesty, along with a refreshing lack of cynical attitude, that you rarely find in independent films these days.
80
TimeRichard Corliss
TimeRichard Corliss
It's best to see this as a drug buffet. Graze through the vignettes... and you'll find three or four tasty bits to snack on.
70
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
But for all the divine touches, FH is no Jesus, or even his son: He's just another wide-eyed American Adam on the road again, a dazed and confused Huck Finn of the highways.
63
Boston GlobeJay Carr
Boston GlobeJay Carr
It's often a downer, with a sweet but largely passive protagonist.
50
Baltimore SunAnn Hornaday
Baltimore SunAnn Hornaday
Does it make it as a movie? Only in fits and starts.