\n\t\u201cWhen you come up with an idea, and you get excited about it, you have to believe that it\u2019s going to be great,\u201d Boyson says. \u201cI think the more that the industry rejected it in the money-raising phase, the more it became my thing, and the more I thought, \u2018Well, if everyone\u2019s saying no to this, it\u2019s going to stand out.’\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tBoyson and his co-writer Ricky Camilleri were inspired by a specific tale of recent online history, when in 2022, Uvalde shooter Salvador Ramos texted a 15-year-old online friend<\/a> in Germany right before he went on his spree.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cPeople dragged her on social media as if she could have done something,\u201d Boyson says. \u201cIt felt like a microcosm for what it means to be a kid. On social media, you\u2019re exposed to and burdened with all the terrible things in the world, as if you are the one who should be doing something about them. Because Ricky and I are not capable of writing a pure hero, we gave him this performative character. What he does online undercuts any pure motivation to stop this shooting.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tBeyond the premise, what makes \u201cBalthazar\u201d unique is a handling of online youth culture that feels authentic, which speaks to some of the teen crime films Boyson and Camilleri reflected on for inspiration, like Larry Clark\u2019s 2001 feature \u201cBully\u201d and Tim Hunter\u2019s 1986 drama \u201cRiver\u2019s Edge.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tOscar Boyson at the \u201cOur Hero, Balthazar\u201d Los Angeles Premiere <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRiver Callaway\/Variety<\/p>\n \n\tWhile \u201cBalthazar\u201d is Boyson\u2019s feature directorial debut, he is no stranger to filmmaking that values authenticity. In his 20s, Boyson moved to New York City and, after answering a fateful Craigslist ad, found himself working with early YouTube stars and filmmakers Casey and Van Neistat. The brothers had a studio in SoHo hotspot 368 Broadway, which was an incubator for many other young creatives, including Greta Gerwig<\/a>, Lena Dunham and the Safdie brothers<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\tThrough networking, hard work and doing nearly every job on DIY film sets, Boyson eventually produced the Safdies\u2019 three most recent joint directorial efforts \u2014\u00a0\u201cHeaven Knows What,\u201d \u201cGood Time\u201d and \u201cUncut Gems\u201d \u2014\u00a0and cites his time working as a co-producer on Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig\u2019s 2012 indie hit \u201cFrances Ha\u201d as a turning point in his creative life.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI saw how well that movie did and how it resonated with audiences, and nobody was talking at all about how small the budget was,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople were only talking about the emotional experience they had. That was the most empowering experience of my professional life up until that point, to see that it was possible. It\u2019s absolutely shaped everything I\u2019ve done since then.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThat passion has carried \u201cBalthazar\u201d to have a robust rollout for an indie. In an intriguingly meta move, the film\u2019s social Instagram account (@bboymalone212<\/a>) is filled with posts of Martell in character as a very emotional Balthazar, and has grown to over 85,000 followers, which has earned the label of the third-most followed social media account for an independent film.<\/p>\n \n\tGiven Boyson\u2019s focus on authenticity, it\u2019s no surprise the in-film and real-life social media can blur the lines of reality, and is a glimpse into a generation he thinks is underrepresented in Hollywood.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cYoung people have grown up on these platforms,\u201d Boyson says. \u201cThey know when it\u2019s AI. They know when it\u2019s fake news. They know when they\u2019re getting sold something. I think they\u2019ve been totally underrepresented by the movie industry. When kids come up after screening at a Q&A and feel seen, that\u2019s super rewarding. Why aren\u2019t we making more of these movies? We\u2019re expecting them all to show up to these movies, but we\u2019re not thinking about their perspective at all.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWatch the \u201cOur Hero, Balthazar\u201d trailer below.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-variety-2020\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
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