The Chumscrubber
User Score
5.8 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 29 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 16 out of 29
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 29
  3. Negative: 10 out of 29

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  1. JoeB.
    Apr 3, 2006
    3
    The characters are very poorly developed, and intentionally so. They represent the stereotypical modern, ignorant, suburban parent who's greatest concern is themselves and who pays no attention to their children. Once you recognize that, the movie is 90% predictable. As others have said, this story has been done before, and been done better. This movie just has a strong cynical tone.
  2. MatthewT.
    May 13, 2006
    8
    A damning, wry indictment on the spiritual vacuity and self-obsession of American society...if you saw yourself it's probably too much to bear and you might be one of those who just don't get it....the subtle, direction cleverly gets under the skin of a culture of self, greed & desire pursued as genuine social values, the psychological walls that are generated thereby, isolate people from themselves & their own families, aided & abetted by the thematic video game metaphor that runs throughout, we too are turned into robots in our blind running after continual pleasure..a film with a real message that needs to be heard! I thoroughly enjoyed it!… Expand
  3. DrewJ.
    Jan 9, 2006
    10
    Comparisons to "Donnie Darko", the masterpiece starring Jake Gyllenhaal, are unavoidable, however, this movie stands on its own as a wonderfully unique commentary on the sad state of suburban American youth (excellent choice BTW, in choosing Valencia, CA for the location - I live in LA, but have never been up there - other than Magic Mountain (in the general vicinity, I believe) - but look up "mildly attractive suburban wasteland" in the dictionary, and I can't imagine a place capturing it more perfectly than Valencia). Excellent performances from people ranging from Glenn Close, Allison Janney, Rita Wilson (all three are HYSTERICAL!), Ralph Fiennes, Rory Culkin, numerous other recognizable faces, and - in the most pivotal role - Jamie Bell ("Billy Elliott"!! I never would have guessed! He's also in the current / 2005 5-hour "King Kong" re-make (won't be seeing that, but kudos to those who recognized his talent)) is wonderful, and one of the most gifted young actors out there. I'm shocked by the bad reviews from publications such as the LA Times ("Every adult in the movie is a caricature") - um, *THAT'S THE POINT*!!? / I'm pretty sure those characters are not meant to be taken seriously - satire, perhaps??!, but what can I say - the same new(?) critic praised the wonderful "Junebug", a mostly overlooked film with many characters one might also call "caricatures" (although, certainly not to the same extent - these are two very different movies, and the characters in "Junebug" are certainly more fully developed, but that's not really the point of "Chumscrubber"). Given the 2005 release of "Chumscrubber", I would hope to see it get nominations for the 2005 Independent Spirit Awards - in spite of - the, um - rather unfortunate title! And of course, to make matters worse, one month later "Thumbsucker" was released!? (Starring an actor from *"Chumscrubber"*?!) It's certainly not "mainstream" material, and thus I don't expect the Academy to recognize it / most members probably never even heard of it - so it's certainly "independent", but in a most splendid way. Is it "clumsy", "smug" *at times*, and not your typical studio formula picture...?? - yes! Please give me that over 99% of what Hollywood releases, and I'd be thrilled! And thank God the people at Christian Science Monitor got it! As for one publication calling it "shrill" and "smug", I can't decide if that's more hypocritical or laughable! Everyone has a right to their opinion of course - but I highly recommend this movie.… Expand
  4. AnaS.
    Mar 2, 2006
    7
    Great cast, all gave good performances. The plot was weird and interesting but not very believable.
  5. Spongeee
    Jul 5, 2007
    8
    Very solid movie with great sarcasm and a surreal feel. The movie was not at all pretentious and original - the simple story allowed for the characters to shine through. If you liked Donnie Darko you'll probably like this.
  6. SethC.
    Aug 27, 2007
    1
    Not only does it rip off nearly every "suburban dystopia" movie ever, it has the guts to pass itself off as groundbreaking and original. Not to mention the overbearingly smug tone throughout. It gets a point for the decent acting, but other than that it's pretentious (I rarely use that term, but it fits PERFECTLY here), predictable, shoddily written and directed, and boring. I don�39;t think I've disliked a movie as much as this in a while.… Expand
  7. kswiss
    Nov 10, 2005
    0
    Drivel ripped off Donnie Darko and Donnie Darko sucked.
  8. MelanieR.
    Aug 16, 2005
    0
    Pretentious, inconsistent tone, a waste of talented actors.
  9. MarkB.
    Aug 18, 2005
    3
    Hey, guess what! Rich, upper-class suburban America is a hotbed of deceit, dishonesty, corruption, hidden lusts, and even more hidden unhappiness! The parents are so self-centered that they don't even care about their own children! Some of those children are perfectly capable of committing shocking acts of violence despite having every material object money can buy! Other neighborhood youngsters do nothing but sit around, experiment with drugs, and play video games all day long! Most shocking of all, self-important neophyte filmmakers load their movies with images of characters from said video games and of aquatic life forms, hoping that viewers will think they're wrought with Significant Meaning!! If you've seen as few TV or movies as, say, that Japanese soldier who spent years in a cave not knowing World War II was over, and haven't heard of the quadruple-digit books, movies and TV shows that have dealt with this subject matter--ranging from Peyton Place to The Breakfast Club to American Beauty to Desperate Housewives, then you might find this self-satisfied, pretentious and obvious would-be social commentary heavy, man, heavy. Others should find this just plain heavy-handed. Long ago, a critic slammed Al Pacino's the-legal-system-is-mad, mad-I-tell-you flick ...And Justice For All by commenting that its makers clearly thought that the key to good social satire is having all the characters go insane at the end. Point taken, but at least that 1979 film's quasi-noble intent was to anger and arouse people into taking action against an unfair and corrupt bureaucracy. The Chumscrubber doesn't seem interested in doing much more than smugly manipulating its audience into feeling superior to all the movie's adults in the worst 1980s John Hughes tradition (although Hughes would include better dialogue). As mentioned before, American Beauty has covered this well-trod ground before, but what made that a masterpiece of its kind was that it found the vulnerability and humanity in all its major characters, including Chris Cooper's abusive military dad. Here, such solid actors as Ralph Fiennes, John Heard and Rita Wilson are instructed to play their characters in the shrillest, most one-note way possible; Glenn Close manages a few touching moments near the end and Matrix fans can delight in how much of Carrie-Anne Moss they get to see (in both senses)...but the only actor playing a parent who imbues the character with anything resembling dimension or nuance is the great Allison Janney (who, coincidentally, was also in Beauty and was absolutely heartbreaking there). To be completely fair, Jamie Bell and Camilla Belle, who play the two central and most sympathetic teens in the neighborhood, do so with skill and grace, but in retrospect, the titular video game character known as The Chumscrubber who figures symbolically in the proceedings is a more accurate representation of the filmmakers than of the movie...simply because he does what he does without a head.… Expand
  10. SamR.
    Nov 19, 2006
    1
    What was the cast thinking? So much talent wasted. This guy shouldn't direct another film for a long time.
  11. ConnorC.
    Nov 6, 2006
    0
    This literally made me want to kill myself. It's the most depressing and odd thing I ever saw. I saw SUPERNOVA, and this was so much worse.
  12. NikkiL
    Dec 3, 2007
    10
    What an amazing movie! much, much better than Donnie Darko. Such an interesting cast, it had alot to say about parent's ignorance of their children's lives. If I had one gripe about this movie is that it loses direction every so often.
  13. RobA
    Mar 2, 2009
    5
    Its not a great movie, but there is worse. Horrible title.It is of course very cliche. Ralph Fiennes is ridiculously awful. Its tone is very scattered. The wasted potential only makes it worse.The video game angle is over the top. Thats the real problem....it can go from over the top to understated in seconds, which makes it muddled and draining.
  14. DaveZ
    Aug 16, 2005
    10
    Phenomenal. Do whatever you can to give this movie a try!
  15. CarlosG.
    Feb 13, 2006
    1
    This movie was utterly terrible. The major characters are completely one dimensional, hyperbolic stereotypes. I watched it all the way through out of morbid curiosity--the same reason gapers gape at bad accidents. And it was worth it--the end borders between, ludicrous, insulting and actually humiliating. In contrast to the wasted talents of the cast, the "young adults" as they're called in the credits, do a unanimously terrible job--a real-life waiting for Guffman on the silver screen. The genre of "everything is not alright in picturesque, suburban paradise has been visited successfully through the original "Stepford Wives", "Twin Peaks" and "American Beauty" and now is free-falling from grace and originality. The only reason I even give this movie one point is te performance of the protagonist, played by an excellent Jamie Bell. Donnie Darko is Michael Jackson, this movie is Tito.… Expand
  16. MichaelS.
    Apr 26, 2006
    10
    Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful film. Yes, it is spotty, yes, the dialogue is corny, yes, the whole "chumscrubber" concept is painfully underdeveloped and embarrassingly misused, but you have to look a bit deeper. Yes, the whole suburban satire has been done time and time again, but this film approaches it from a totally unique angle - in that these kids are practically getting away with murder, and the parents don't even notice. The kids are just as bad. It's like an apathy of choice; they are so passionate about their own issues, but don't give a damn what anyone else is doing. Powerful, and it rings so true in today's self-serving society of entitlement. No other suburban satire has quite hit the nail on the head in this way. Other films have hit the nail on the head much harder and more sharply, but this is very much coming from a bit of a new direction.… Expand
  17. Erick
    Mar 19, 2007
    8
    For a real listener this is a good movie.
  18. keithw.
    Nov 16, 2005
    1
    What a mess!
  19. yogibbear
    Jan 27, 2011
    5
    Average. It has its moments, but I wouldn't watch this more than once and even then it was just to see what it was all about. This has be done before, and better in every way in a multitude of movies. Movealong. However, if you like the genre, watch this movie to realise why the other movies like this are true stand outs whereas this is just average. Enjoyable at times, some good acting (mixed amongst some bad acting), pretty good soundtrack, OK storyline, but at the end of the day it's completely unmemorable. As others have said, Donnie Darko/American Beauty/The Breakfast Club/etc. have done this before and a million times better.… Expand

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
41 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 12 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 12
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 12
  3. Negative: 4 out of 12
  1. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Luke Y. Thompson
    60
    Either a bit more humor or a bit more heart could exponentially improve things.
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  2. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Jeremy Mathews
    50
    A series of pretentious social commentary punctuated by windows of excellence that only make it more frustrating.
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  3. Variety
    Reviewed by: Scott Foundas
    30
    An insufferable, self-conscious cult movie, The Chumscrubber smugly heaps on half-baked ideas about media violence, the homogeneity of suburbia and the disintegration of the American family.
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