Hello Herman

Director: Michelle Danner

Cast: Norman Reedus, Martha Higareda, Garrett Backstrom, Rob Estes, Andy McPhee

Genre: Drama 2012

Running time: 88 mins.

Rating:★★★

Sixteen-year-old Herman Howards (Garrett Backstrom) makes a fateful decision. He enters his suburban school and commits a terrible act violence. Seconds before his arrest he emails his idol, infamous journalist Lax Morales (Norman Reedus), telling him, "I want to tell my story on your show." Haunted by his own past, Morales is forced to confront the troubled teenager, now an inmate with an uncertain future.

"If we hope to heal the pain, we must first discover the cause." -Ancient Proberb. This opening quote is the theme to how the stage is being laid out and the events that unravel into plot. Though, some of the more recent films that I've seen in which the "act" or the end scene is shown to the audience first, in an attempt to intice the audience to immediately fixated on how the character's got that point that they choose not to avoid, have annoyed the shit out of me because of the way the film presents it. Films like The Scenic Route, a man having crazied stare with a Mohawk , sitting down in the middle of nowhere, covered in blood, his buddy dead on the ground, and that's it! Hardly a " Oh my God, Dude! This film is gonna be badass! I gotta see what happened!" This film, however, touches a base with everybody. Similar events that we have either experienced first hand or stories reported on the news, but we never thought that much on how or why it came to this point, where adolescents commit such violence.

Indeed, we all have issues and demons or even a troubled past, but never result in murder and violence. Lax Morales (Norman Reedus), a journalist and this boy's idol, definitely seemed to demons or skeletons in his closet that he desperately trying to surpress.  Why, exactly? We're not sure yet. Now, when the two characters start doing their dialogues, Morales brings up an interesting subject ( one that has been on parental and political minds as to it having any affect on the youths' morals) of video games, where the objective is to shoot as many people as you can, in order to score more points. He also asked the typical question as to if Herman (Garrett Backstrom) was bullied at school by other students and/or teachers. Herman seems overly cocky (as usual with this age group, they don't know shit because there's still a lot they haven't dealt with. For the most part, many of them are still in the safety of their parent's money and household), asking personal questions about Morales' past violent actions that can never be taken back. A past that may have been for a story, but doesn't make Morales feel almost just like Herman. It is a bit frightening, what can be found on the internet: like downloading shooting games that made it "easier" for Herman to do what he did and instructions on how to make your own pipe bombs. Psychological issues that bring up Morales's question as to why his mother didn't suspect anything or figure it out. Things don't just happen, there are always psychological and physical elements or interactions taking affect that can intertwine further back than one is consciously or unconsciously aware of. Parents or other people can sometimes be so wrapped up in their own business, unresolved psychological issues, or say/do something to that person that they maybe unaware on how that person may interpret or be affected by it. Again, things don't just happen! Oooo you can find things in the internet that doesn't mean you know everything because you haven't experienced everything first hand. Ignorance will always come back to haunt you eventually. "I didn't do anything," can still make a person of fault to a tragic outcome. By the end of the film, both characters come to finally deal with their own demons and come back to their humanity. 

This film is one to question the audiences own life and decisions as well as the decisions made in society. We are not as alone as one may think of themselves.