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Thumbsucker
Sony Pictures Classics


7.9

based on 33 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 26 votes
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Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: R for drug/alcohol use and sexuality involving teens, language and a disturbing image

Starring Lou Taylor Pucci, Tilda Swinton, Vincent D'Onofrio, Kelli Garner, Keanu Reeves, Vince Vaughn, Benjamin Bratt, and Chase Offerle

An honest and funny look at the struggles of people who feel deeply flawed, both those in youth and middle age. They yearn to be anything but their real selves with their real fears and doubts. Instead, they want to be "normal." They look for magic answers to fix themselves – only to realize that they can’t be someone else, that "normal" does not exist, and that their flaws are what make them human and loveable. (Sony Pictures Classics)

GENRE(S):	Comedy \| Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Mike Mills Walter Kirn (novel)
DIRECTED BY:	Mike Mills
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: January 24, 2006 Theatrical: September 16, 2005
RUNNING TIME:	96 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

Silver Berlin Bear, Best Actor (Pucci), 2005 Berlin International Film Festival; Special Jury Prize (Dramatic), Lou Taylor Pucci, 2005 Sundance Film Festival

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Quiet, quirky gem.

Dallas Observer Melissa Levine

Supremely enjoyable.

Empire Damon Wise

A refreshingly low-key treatment of teenage trauma, with a lovely star performance and an unforgettable approach to orthodontics.

New York Magazine Ken Tucker

One of the wonderful things about Thumbsucker is that, unlike so many movies in which a character changes in order to propel the plot forward, this one stops to follow up on the consequences of those changes.

Film Threat Bob Westal

Benefits from a goofy yet incisive sense of humor and some extremely strong performances.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Mr. Pucci, emerging slowly from behind a stray lock of brown hair, plays Justin's ambiguous transformation with deft understatement. And Mike Mills, who wrote and directed, keeps the film from slipping either into melodrama or facile satire, the two traps into which this genre is most apt to fall.

The New Yorker David Denby

It feels fresh, almost improvised, mainly because Mills doesn’t drive his scenes toward an obvious resolution.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

It's the kind of movie that lives and dies by a viewer's own idiosyncrasies.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Pucci pulls off Justin's transformation without resorting to histrionics; it's like a radio-station signal finally coming in clearly.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

A perfectly cast Keanu Reeves pokes deadpan fun at himself in the role of Justin's New Age dentist, who hypnotizes the kid and encourages him to find his inner ''power animal.'' And Vince Vaughn, in a rare straight turn, is excellent as Justin's high school teacher.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

As it stands, the film is perhaps a tad low-key to catch the eye, but it's carefully enough made and, especially, acted, to keep a hold on the brain and heart long after it's over.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

It's not a great movie, or one that should preoccupy you much afterwards, but it's certainly a good one. It's a fine debut for first-timer Mills.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The movie contains many of the usual ingredients of teenage suburban angst tragicomedies, but writer-director Mike Mills, who began with a novel by Walter Kirn, uses actors who can riff.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White

Most disappointing is the ending, which, in projecting the possibility of a saner and more hopeful world, is a bit of a cop-out.

New York Daily News Robert Dominguez

It's Pucci - who's already won a couple of acting prizes on the festival circuit, including Sundance - who steals the film with a wonderful performance blending the awkward innocence, vulnerability and pain of being a teen.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

The movie has a lot of good bits and terrific performances, including a too-perfect Keanu Reeves as a mystic orthodontist.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Pucci is an actor to watch: He rides this spellbinder without softening the truths that plague the thumbsucker in all of us.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Thumbsucker is true to its nature, and that makes Justin's eventual transformation all the more rewarding.

Village Voice Jessica Winter

Endearing and well-acted.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

It's a familiar story, but Mills and Pucci treat it as if it were the first time anyone had thought to tell it.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

Thumbsucker is a head-scratcher. It's well directed and acted. Yet the story has little emotional pull.

Variety Dennis Harvey

Thumbsucker (like "Donnie Darko") is more likely to prosper in the long haul as a home-format cult fave than in its initial arthouse tour. Both offer eccentric humor within a fairly somber overall tone, support-cast surprises, and (to a lesser degree in Thumbsucker) fable-like, hyperreal elements.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

American independent movies about awkward adolescence are never in short supply, but this highly assured first feature by commercials and music video director Mike Mills is the first since "Donnie Darko" to view the latter stages of teenagerdom as fodder for a phantasmagorical odyssey of Lewis Carroll–like distortions.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

A gently stirring symphony about emotional transition filled with lovely musical passages and softly nuanced performances.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Vince Vaughn in a wonderfully low-key performance.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

The film's underlying notion, that imperfection is the essence of humanity and the pursuit of bland flawlessness a kind of soul-killing drug, is far more compelling than its story of clichéd teen angst.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

So no one would argue that Thumbsucker sucks. But the thing does seem just so indie-movie familiar.

USA Today Claudia Puig

The movie and its theme of self-acceptance has an honesty, undercut by occasional preciousness, that makes it worth seeing.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

Thumbsucker aims high but swerves too frequently between the engaging and the credibility-defying to be satisfying.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Pucci proves to be one of the most charismatic male ingenues since Johnny Depp.

New York Post V.A. Musetto

The actors can't escape the confines of the warmed-over, coming-of-age-in-suburbia script by Mills, from a novel by Walter Kirn.

Slate David Edelstein

The parents are the casualties of Mills' misplaced sincerity, which makes Thumbsucker the quintessential misadapted head-scratcher.

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

Often amusing but lacks the necessary bite.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.9 (out of 10) based on 26 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Mark K. gave it an8:
A refreshingly original film with plenty of smiles and pathos. It is easy to imagine oneself in the main character's place, which makes the movie more effective. Overall, very enjoyable.

Dave C. gave it a4:
Zzzzzzz... trite and vacuous indie film. Non-descript where it thinks it is being subtle, banal where it believes it is being profound. Soundtrack was very good though.

Matt J. gave it a9:
A cross between two great films, fight club and donnie darko, feeling that the weight of the world is on your shoulders, and trying to find all the ways possible to become perfect, but realising true perfection is imperfect

Jason S. gave it a5:
A good attempt but in the end too lightweight. Some good central performances though and Reeves is surprisingly good.

Kenny M. gave it a10:
This was by far the best movie I've seen in the last year...great acting, great filming and amazing music..props to tim delaughter and the polyphonic spree, and the late elliot smith...amazing, touching, beautiful movie...must see.

Mark gave it a7:
Although some of it is a little too surreal for its own good, and the transformation from Ritalin stoner to pot stoner is forced and not well done, this is a fine movie with a great message. Vincent D'onofrio is his usual great self, and Pucci and Swindon are both amazing.

Paul F. gave it an8:
The best aspect to this movie was the layers it took on as the lead character evolved. The worst aspect to this movie was that no matter what age the characters were they all seemed the same in their existential philosophizing. In anycase the acting was fairly good and the film didn't rely on cheap over the top shock value stunts (well maybe one but it was funny). In short it was a film that attempted to say something profound. I do not know if it suceeded, but it did have its moments.

Thumbsucker Sony Pictures Classics

Thumbsucker
Sony Pictures Classics