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Features: DVD, Widescreen, Aspect Ratio 2.35:1, Dolby Digital (5.1), Dolby Surround Sound, French, Dubbed & Subtitled
Meet Justin Cobb (Lou Pucci), a teenager who still sucks his thumb. Realizing it's totally disrupting his home, love and school love life, he allows his orthodontist (Keanu Reeves) to break him of the habit through hypnosis. Justin begins to experiment with prescription drugs, pot and sex as alternate means to overcome his anxieties and become "normal," never realizing normal is just a state of mind.
"It manages to show how calamitous and out of control (and also how thrilling) growing up can be." A.O. Scott, New York Times
"Two thumbs up!" Ebert & Roeper
Editor's Note
Music-video director Mike Mills's feature-length debut, THUMBSUCKER, is an offbeat, unique film about the trials and tribulations of a relatively normal family living in Oregon. The black comedy stars Lou Pucci as Justin Cobb, a 17-year-old who still sucks his thumb, infuriating his tough father, Mike (Vincent D'Onofrio), a high-school football star who never made it to the pros because of a knee injury. Justin's mother, Audrey (Tilda Swinton), is a nurse who is developing an odd crush on TV actor Matt Schramm (Benjamin Bratt). Meanwhile, Justin becomes more interested in Rebecca (Kelli Garner) than arguing with his peers as a member of Mr. Geary's (Vince Vaughn) debate team. To rid Justin of his thumbsucking habit--as well as other weird things that begin happening after his Zen-like orthodontist, Perry Lyman (Keanu Reeves), hypnotizes him--he is put on medication to combat attention deficit disorder, which further complicates his life and his relationships with friends, family, and teachers. Pucci is magnificent in the title role, capturing just the right nuances in his portrayal of a troubled teenager. The rest of the cast is excellent as well, especially D'Onofrio as a father unable to show his emotions, Vaughn as a cool teacher, and Reeves as a wacked-out dentist. The Polyphonic Spree composed songs for the film, which is based on a novel by Walter Kirn.
| Features | Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.0 Surround Sound | | Audio: French Dolby Digital Stereo | | Behind The Scenes Documentary | | Conversation With Director And Novelist | | Director Commentary | | Director's Blog | | Interactive Menus | | Previews | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: English, French |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Sony Pictures |
| Release Date: 6/24/2008 |
| Running Time: 96 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2005 | | Catalog ID: 11482 | | UPC: 00043396114821 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English | | Available Subtitles: French | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1 |
| Cast & Crew | Lou Taylor Pucci | | Tilda Swinton | | Vince Vaughn | | Vincent D'Onofrio | | Anne Carey, et. al. - Executive Producer | | Anthony Bregman, et. al. - Producer | | Haines Hall, et. al. - Editor | | Joaquin Baca-Asay - Cinematographer | | Judy Becker - Production Designer | | Mike Mills - Writer | | Mike Mills - Director | | Tim DeLaughter, et. al. - Original Music By | | Walter Kirn - Based On Novel By |
| Awards |
Sundance Film Festival (2005) |  | Lou Taylor Pucci, Winner, Special Jury Prize | | | Mike Mills, Nominee, Grand Jury Prize |
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| | Professional Reviews | Rolling Stone
3 stars out of 5 -- "Pucci is an actor to watch: He rides this spellbinder without softening the truths that plague the thumbsucker in all of us." 09/22/2005 p.116Movieline's Hollywood Life
"[C]hock-full of original characters and details....THUMBSUCKER is a sly, quirky, even profound meditation on the impediments to survival in suburban America." 09/01/2005 p.100 Premiere
"The movie has a lot of good bits and terrific performances..." 10/01/2005 p.50 USA Today
"[I]t has an absurdist worldview and some engaging performances, notably the lead." 09/23/2005 p.10E Sight and Sound
"It's a startlingly assured film....Mills should be grateful to his actors..." 12/01/2005 p.79 Uncut
Ranked #28 in Uncut's Best Films Of 2005 -- "[A] quirky, wistful coming-of-age drama and a canny satire on America's obsession with medication." 01/01/2006 p.82-83 Entertainment Weekly
"It's a trip to see Vaughn ditch his frat-boy cool to play a debate coach and a good-natured Reeves as a Zen-master orthodontist." 01/27/2006 p.70 James Berardinelli's ReelViews 7 of 10
When it comes to tales about the hand's opposable digit, there have been Thumbelina, Tom Thumb, and now Thumbsucker. A quirky character piece that could just as easily go by the title of Ritalin Nation, Thumbsucker boasts a strong character arc, some nice performances, and an understated message about the overprescribing of drugs to American youths. But Mike Mills doesn't want this to turn into a soap box sermon, so he avoids sensationalization and melodrama. Thumbsucker may have something to say, but it doesn't need a hammer or a bullhorn to make its statement. - James Berardinelli
Chicago Sun-Times 7 of 10
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; Swinton and D'Onofrio are so peculiarly exact as their characters that we realize Audrey and Mike are supposed to be themselves in every scene, and are never defined only as "Justin's parents." She wins the date, and she may be outta here. Or maybe not. In a lot of movies, you'd know one way or the other, but Audrey has free will and Swinton plays her as if neither one of them has looked ahead in the screenplay. Keanu Reeves, too, makes more of the orthodontist than what we'd expect. He comes up with a Val Kilmeresque detachment from the very qualities that made him famous, and when he apologizes for "hippie psychobabble," he doesn't even need to smile. - Roger Ebert
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