Our Hero, Balthazar

Oscar Boyson's 2026 film follows Balthazar, the son of a wealthy New York family. Wanting to prove himself to an activist girl, he travels to Texas believing he can single-handedly stop an act of violence planned by someone he encountered online. The subject is good intention deceiving itself. Balthazar wants to do something, but at the centre of what he wants to do is his own visibility rather than other people's lives; the narrative neither exalts this nor simply mocks it. Jaeden Martell and Asa Butterfield lead. The tone sits between comedy and suspense, and in moving between them the film chooses to leave the viewer uneasy. Who it's for: those interested in contemporary American independent cinema and films about radicalisation formed online. Who it's not for: viewers sensitive to gun violence and school attack themes; the film takes them as its direct subject.