Thumbsucker is hilarious at times, evocative the rest of the time. It’s unique, though with it’s smart soundtrack (i.e. The Polyphonic Spree), quirky sense of humor and real world sensibility, the film fits snugly into the art house dramedy mold.
This paradoxical “unique conformity” doesn’t stop the movie from being terrific. Thumbsucker, with a positive word of mouth, could be the next Napoleon Dynamite – a movie that gets young people back to the hip theaters in Dupont Circle and Bethesda.
Perhaps it’s just the persnickety grumbling of a dweeb who’s seen enough Garden State to fill the Jersey Turnpike, but I can’t help but feel like Thumbsucker is a chopped and screwed version of dozens of other search-for-identity flicks trying to pass itself off as something more.
The crux of Thumbsucker has to do with change, especially in young people. Our graceless, introverted protagonist, 17-year-old Justin Cobb (newcomer Lou Pucci), changes much in 95 minutes: from loner to debate team captain to stoner.
As the title would imply, Justin sucks his thumb, perhaps a symbol of his fear and isolation. He starts out 0 for 2, striking out at school with poor grades and at home with his insecure ex-jock dad (Vincent D’Onofrio Full Metal Jacket).
Meanwhile, plenty more starts to go wrong for Justin, as his mom (Tilda Swinton, Constantine) seems to have a crush on TV actor Matt Schramm (Benjamin Bratt, Catwoman) and his out-to-lunch orthodontist (a scene-stealing Keanu Reeves, The Matrix) tries unsuccessfully to help wean the boy off of his own thumb.
And just after his little brother chides him for never hanging out with girls, Justin’s budding relationship with cutie-pie environmentalist Rebecca (Kelli Garner, The Aviator, first seen in this film sporting an amazing “Club Sandwiches, Not Seals” T-shirt) falls apart.
The first major change for Justin comes when he is misdiagnosed with ADHD and given prescription medicine. He delights in the idea that popping a pill could be the solution to all of his problems. After perhaps the most realistic depiction of what it’s like to take Adderall for the first time (Justin reads Moby Dick from cover to cover in one sitting), it seems the drug may be the answer.
He joins the debate team, supervised by Mr. Geary (Vince Vaughn, whose irrepressible charisma does wonders for the role), who desperately wants to feel like one of the gang. Vaughn’s 6-foot 5-inch frame and librarian-sized glasses wonderfully isolate him from his students in a sad sort of way.
But as the film’s theme of change dictates, Justin soon realizes the debate team and pills aren’t the answer either, and ditches both. The way he craves an identity, has a galaxy of people and friends and then just scraps it all may get you thinking about the phases, friends and places you once went through or knew.
Though the story is compelling and the stylized dream sequences are blissfully low-budget, the strength of the movie lies in the performances from top to bottom. D’Onofrio and Swinton are exceptional as parents who seem more like siblings, insisting their children call them by their first names so they don’t feel old. Pucci, who has already been awarded for his performance at The Sundance Film Festival, utilizes his solid acting chops and baby face to pull off this innocent fawn role. He really comes alive in scenes featuring Garner, a great actress in her own right.
While these four actors provide the dramatic backbone for the film, it’s big names in the cast – Vaughn, Reeves and Bratt – who keep the mood loose. Bratt uses his good looks and writer and director’s Mike Mills’s sharp dialogue to perfectly parody wayward actors who check themselves into rehab. Vaughn adds his own flavor to his unconventional teacher role, in one instance telling Justin to bring the girls into the men’s restroom for a pre-debate pep talk, saying, “Round ’em up. It’s cool, I’m a teacher. Just bring ’em in here.”
But it’s Reeves who personifies not only the film’s oddball goofiness but the dead-on casting. Did we really buy Reeves as an affable doctor in Something’s Gotta Give? But as a hippyish space cadet of an orthodontist, yeah, I can see that. He hypnotizes Justin not to suck his thumb anymore in one scene, telling him to “call on your power animal” and “your thumb will now taste like Echinacea.” Reeves’s performance characterizes Mills’s film as a whole, surprisingly smart and funny, if not perhaps a bit familiar.
Contact reporter Patrick Gavin at gavindbk@gmail.com.
