Not your average coming of age flick
Thumbsucker (2005)
God this movie was good. I suppose I should start with some kind of comment as to what it is. A teenage outcast, Justin Cobb (Lou Pucci), fueled by a difficult homelife of overbearing father (Vincent D'Onofrio) and disenchanted mother (Tilda Swinton), tries to deal with the difficulty in his life in a variety of ways. Sound cliche yet? Well, perhaps it's less cliche when you realize that the major difficulty in his life, the part he's struggling so much with, is that at 17 years old he still sucks his thumb.
What makes this film so unique from others like it is the tone with which it approaches the coming of age story. It avoids becoming too bogged down in angst and anger. We never see poor Justin listening to Linkin Park or riding his skateboard to school or even really complaining about his parents. He loves his parents, and they love him. His struggles with them are believable, and not so much the cause for his thumbsucking as they are not the cure. He's arriving at the age that he wants his parents to help him, but wants independence as well, and a part of him just wants to be able to keep up his thumbsucking habit, which is always there for him in a moment of comfort.
Moreso, the story is genuinely funny. Smarly written and terrifically acted, especially by the young Pucci, this movie made me laugh more than any recent Hollywood comedy I've seen, save perhaps for 40 Year Old Virgin. We avoid sap, we avoid angst, and we get a quirky, poignant, amusing little tale about a kid struggling to grow up and be normal.
And despite complaints about the parents, all of the characters are very likable. His mother, Audrey, seems desperate to escape her life, but in both the script and her mannerisms you really feel as if there's love for her son and husband. Justin's father, Mike, obviously feels similarly trapped, but more by himself and his inability to "stay young." Sometimes this reflects on the kid, but again, he always expresses a kind of gruff love that you feel his father may've passed onto him. (As an aside, Lou Pucci was somehow the perfect choice, looking remarkably like he could actually be Swinton and D'Onofrio's child).
Moreso, there's a cast of surrounding characters that add flavor to the mix. Vince Vaugn defies his conventional role and plays a fairly mild-mannered good-intended Debate Team coach, who serves as a type of mentor for Justin's gifts but is unsure what to do with him when he gets carried away with them. Keanu Reeves plays Justin's hippie orthodontist, who almost charicatures his own acting style and allows it to be made fun of a bit. His character seems totally in place due mostly in part to the other characters recognizing how bizarre he is, and he really does serve to put a point on some of the themes of the movie.
In the end, the film makes a point, but doesn't strongarm it. It's the type of movie that you could watch again and again and catch small pieces of nuance, not only in the script but in the mannerisms of the characters. And while the quest for normalcy drives Justin insane, it's quite a fun trip watching him take that quest, and he comes to some insight of the nature of "normal" that is something to take home with you.
I don't give out 10s lightly, but considering how much I loved the movie, along with winning Berling International Film Festival, Independent Spirit, Stockholm Film Festival, and Sundance Film Festival awards, I feel pretty safe slapping a double-digit on this one.
Score: 10/10
God this movie was good. I suppose I should start with some kind of comment as to what it is. A teenage outcast, Justin Cobb (Lou Pucci), fueled by a difficult homelife of overbearing father (Vincent D'Onofrio) and disenchanted mother (Tilda Swinton), tries to deal with the difficulty in his life in a variety of ways. Sound cliche yet? Well, perhaps it's less cliche when you realize that the major difficulty in his life, the part he's struggling so much with, is that at 17 years old he still sucks his thumb.
What makes this film so unique from others like it is the tone with which it approaches the coming of age story. It avoids becoming too bogged down in angst and anger. We never see poor Justin listening to Linkin Park or riding his skateboard to school or even really complaining about his parents. He loves his parents, and they love him. His struggles with them are believable, and not so much the cause for his thumbsucking as they are not the cure. He's arriving at the age that he wants his parents to help him, but wants independence as well, and a part of him just wants to be able to keep up his thumbsucking habit, which is always there for him in a moment of comfort.
Moreso, the story is genuinely funny. Smarly written and terrifically acted, especially by the young Pucci, this movie made me laugh more than any recent Hollywood comedy I've seen, save perhaps for 40 Year Old Virgin. We avoid sap, we avoid angst, and we get a quirky, poignant, amusing little tale about a kid struggling to grow up and be normal.
And despite complaints about the parents, all of the characters are very likable. His mother, Audrey, seems desperate to escape her life, but in both the script and her mannerisms you really feel as if there's love for her son and husband. Justin's father, Mike, obviously feels similarly trapped, but more by himself and his inability to "stay young." Sometimes this reflects on the kid, but again, he always expresses a kind of gruff love that you feel his father may've passed onto him. (As an aside, Lou Pucci was somehow the perfect choice, looking remarkably like he could actually be Swinton and D'Onofrio's child).
Moreso, there's a cast of surrounding characters that add flavor to the mix. Vince Vaugn defies his conventional role and plays a fairly mild-mannered good-intended Debate Team coach, who serves as a type of mentor for Justin's gifts but is unsure what to do with him when he gets carried away with them. Keanu Reeves plays Justin's hippie orthodontist, who almost charicatures his own acting style and allows it to be made fun of a bit. His character seems totally in place due mostly in part to the other characters recognizing how bizarre he is, and he really does serve to put a point on some of the themes of the movie.
In the end, the film makes a point, but doesn't strongarm it. It's the type of movie that you could watch again and again and catch small pieces of nuance, not only in the script but in the mannerisms of the characters. And while the quest for normalcy drives Justin insane, it's quite a fun trip watching him take that quest, and he comes to some insight of the nature of "normal" that is something to take home with you.
I don't give out 10s lightly, but considering how much I loved the movie, along with winning Berling International Film Festival, Independent Spirit, Stockholm Film Festival, and Sundance Film Festival awards, I feel pretty safe slapping a double-digit on this one.
Score: 10/10