Genre: Drama, Comedy
Plot: It's not easy growing up, no matter what age you are...Justin Cobb (LOU PUCCI) still sucks his thumb at 17. He wants to stop and knows that his thumbsucking is disrupting his family, his love life and his identity. The only thing that changes his behavior is hypnosis therapy administered by his "guru" orthodontist. But while Justin felt this would solve all his problems and he would finally be "normal," his troubles were really just beginning. Thumbsucking was only a symptom of a deep-seated fear: that he and his father aren't good enough for his mother, and that she would leave them. Thumbsucking was the only way to soothe this fear. Once that is gone Justin spirals into manic behavior, is diagnosed with ADHD and put on Ritalin, which becomes a substitute for his thumb. When the high of the prescription drugs and a newfound success at school crash, Justin turns to pot and sex to replace his thumb. His father Mike (VINCENT D'ONOFRIO) is himself shadowed by the sad twists of youth: a broken college football career apparently sidelined by a knee injury. In many ways Mike feels like a teenager, yet he finds himself in his early 40s with his eldest son still sucking his thumb as he's heading to college and his wife seeming to drift away. Mike hides his fears and disappointments
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 Discussion forum for this movie
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 I won't go so far as to decree Thumbsucker to be an exceptional coming-of-age drama, but it's a solid contender. The film captures many of the nuances of enduring high school as an outsider without falling into the common trap of exaggerating the experience and turning the protagonist into an unlikely hero. Thumbsucker is true to its nature, and that makes Justin's eventual transformation all the more rewarding.  --James Berardinelli (ReelViews)
"Thumbsucker" aims high but swerves too frequently between the engaging and the credibility-defying to be satisfying.--Kevin Thomas
Mills knows how to put a film together, there’s little doubt of that. But these skills and cast would have been better served in a story of just slightly more import. Less Polyphonic Spree on the soundtrack would have been nice, too.  --Chris Barsanti (FilmCritic.com)
Yet despite the introspection, it's an accessible movie, a colorful and warm coming-of-age story with rich characters. If it sometimes overdoes its indie-film quirkiness, it ultimately makes up for it with real depth and laugh-out-loud comedy. B+--Eric D. Snider (EricDSnider.com)
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| Directed by |
Mike Mills
Air: Eating, Sleeping, Waiting and Playing, Beautiful Losers |
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| Written by |
| Mike Mills
Air: Eating, Sleeping, Waiting and Playing, Beautiful Losers |
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| Cast |
Tilda Swinton
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Constantine, Vanilla Sky |
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 | Keanu Reeves
The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions |
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 | Vince Vaughn
Mr. & Mrs. Smith, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Wedding Crashers |
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As another look into an American family with odd, if not grotesque, characteristics, this coming-of-age psycho comedy bears a greater resemblance to "Imaginary Heroes" than "Donnie Darko." Nor does it come close to titular cousin "Chumscrubber." No, "Thumbsucker" is not surreal, though it might have benefited if it were cast in a more unearthly sphere of enlightenment.  --The Filmiliar Cineaste
Thumbsucker is far from a slice of life, and in the end there's a definite feeling of construction. But despite this, the film is not tidy: it gives no answers aside from intimating that there may not be any, and the main character's redemption is almostincidental. The ending does not involve a high school prom, and Justin's romantic entanglements are distinctly the beginning and not the end-all. And I would nominate Thumbsucker as having the best final shot of the year to date. B+--Eugene Novikov (FilmBlather)
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