Our Hero, Balthazar review – a darkly comic satire of incel culture and gun violence

What happened

According to The Guardian’s report, Our Hero, Balthazar review – a darkly comic satire of incel culture and gun violence, A poser activist and an online troll strike up a homoerotic friendship in Safdie brothers collaborator Oscar Boyson’s scabrous story ‘I think it’s nice to be part of a community” is how Manhattan rich kid Balthazar (Jaeden Martell) justifies his favourite hobby: posting tear-soaked videos in which he sociopathically pretends to be one of the horde of American youth lamenting the national epidemic of gun violence. Longtime Safdie brothers producer Oscar Boyson brings that kind of scabrous attitude – not just to school shootings, but to social media, “incel”, self-help and US salesman cultures – in this squirming, energetically directed black comedy that is reminiscent of the take-no-prisoners libertarian satire of Jason Reitman’s early films. Balthazar is trying to impress his crush, Eleanor (Pippa Knowles), with whom he enthusiastically plays the role of the victim in school-shooting dri

Context

The development sits in VINI’s Culture coverage for readers following arts, entertainment, fashion, film, music, celebrity, and the business of culture. The original report is linked so readers can check the source account, follow later updates, and compare new coverage against the first published record. The linked item is dated 2026-07-13T08:00:41+00:00.

What to watch

Open questions include whether primary sources issue follow-up statements, whether local or market impacts become clearer, and whether additional reporting changes the timeline or adds material context.

Source

Primary source: Our Hero, Balthazar review – a darkly comic satire of incel culture and gun violence via The Guardian. VINI cites and links the source; it does not reproduce the publisher’s full article text without rights clearance.