Thumbsucker Reviews

To be honest, I wasn't sure about this flick but since there were a couple of interesting actors involved, I thought I should give it a try. First of all, the title is not really bad but it doesn't make the whole thing really attractive. At least, you know beforehand that you will be dealing with and for a movie dealing with teenage anxiety, I thought it was pretty solid. Above all, the characters were really interesting and the understated acting by Vincent D'Onofrio, Tilda Swinton and Vince Vaughn was really appreciated. Concerning Keanu Reeves, it was honestly a nice attempt to try something else but his character was just way underwritten and his behavior was impossible to follow. The main issue I had with this flick is that it was still rather unfocused in my opinion. I mean, you start with the whole thumbsucking business but then it is about a debate team and later, you have some pot smoking. Each time, the behavior of the main character changed rather drastically and it was a little too much. Not that Lou Pucci should be blamed as he gave a pretty solid performance. To conclude, even though the whole thing is not really original or convincing, I still think that they managed to create some interesting characters and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

1. Lou Pucci, being Justin Cobb, is spectacular in this film. He's not that bad ass, I mean he's not THAT good looking - he's definitely not all that. But his skinny and scrawny body makes him something, or someone. Now I want to watch more of his films. :)

2. At first, I thought Thumbsucker was a late '90s film because of it's cover. And I didn't remember this being filmed in the Philippine cinemas.

3. Having a dentist like Keanu Reeves is certainly the shit. He's the charismatic hippie named Perry who insisted that Justin just needs to call on his power animal whenever he feels lonely, or feels like sucking his thumb.

4. Vince Vaughn as the slightly gay debate teacher: well this cracked me up a bit.

5. "Thirteen" was played as one of the soundtracks and I was delighted.

6. I also thought that the whole debate idea resembled the plot of Rocket Science: the male protagonist/stuttering-at-first debater falls in love with the female top debater, blah blah blah. But Thumbsucker's all better.

7. I think the ending is righteous. It's not so comedic but it left me with a blissful feeling. This is worth seeing again. :)