Director	Mike Mills
Length	96 mins
Certificate	15
Rating	Film making: 3  Personal enjoyment: 4

The most recent ‘Hollywood independent’ to hit our screens, Thumbsucker is the first feature from music video director and documentary filmmaker Mike Mills. It tells the story of 17-year-old Justin - a typical teenage outsider in American suburbia, his surrounding friends, family and father-figures and his inability to kick the childhood habit of thumb-sucking.

Having seen the idiosyncratic posters and trailer, and knowing that its soundtrack was provided by both the late Elliott Smith and the Polyphonic Spree, I was absolutely expecting Thumbsucker to be another clear cut example of the ‘Quirky New Wave’ - the trend into which so much current interesting American filmmaking now neatly fits. While it can undoubtedly be said to herald a new member to the Wave’s ranks in some ways, I was a little surprised to find a rather affecting little straight-faced family drama unfold in front of me.

Largely lacking the slightly ironic, surreal comic edge that accompanies much work of the Wave, Thumbsucker is instead mostly unapologetically sincere in its portrayal of teenage (and adult) angst, inviting its audience into empathy rather than detachment. Its emotive naturalism is the polar opposite of, for example, the mildly amusing but ultimately frustratingly cold Napoleon Dynamite (2004) and its depiction of high school loners.

As such, it is a film which prioritises theme over style, and is in fact surprisingly old-fashioned-Hollywood in the way its taut script balances and develops its underlying concerns, slowly drawing parallels between the neuroses that bind its disparate characters to one another. Being so focussed on providing well-rounded characters and an over-arching philosophy occasionally has its drawbacks here. As so often in male-written and directed drama, the female characters are hewn comparatively far less convincingly than are the men - in particular the motivations driving Justin’s on-off love interest Rebecca are woefully under-explored. There is also a slight whiff of self-satisfied profundity in the way the film feels the need to openly vocalise some (admirable) messages which have been made perfectly, if subtly, clear by the rest of the film already.

We are treated to a host of impressive performances from the surprisingly starry cast, in particular Vincent D’Onofrio in the sidelined but touching role of Justin’s father, Vince Vaughn as a compassionate teacher, and the potentially celebrity-making turn by wide-eyed Lou Taylor Pucci as the titular Thumbsucker. On a side-note: please don’t be tempted to believe reviewers who will tell you that Keanu Reeves’ comic performance as Justin’s orthodontist is revelatory - it is fine, but still reminds us of his rigidly limited range.

The direction is mainly unfussy and unobtrusive, yet also sometimes subtly striking in moments such as occasional jump-cuts being used to imply a world seen through a haze of prescribed medication. The only element that seems conspicuously out of place are the largely arbitrary dream sequences, which feel like an unnecessary and token acknowledgement of the film’s assured status as an American Cult Hit. Musically, Mills’ choice to have The Polyphonic Spree take over the soundtrack after Elliot Smith’s death is a strange one, considering how different their upbeat bombast is to Smith’s beautifully spare melancholia; it would be a quite different film if scored entirely by him alone. Yet the contrast is interesting, the unavoidable poignancy added by having a recently dead voice commentating on the action juxtaposing instructively with the Spree’s innocently optimistic take on the world.

Ultimately, Thumbsucker is a, largely, quietly satisfying experience that announces the arrival of a refreshing new voice onto the American film scene.