The Chumscrubber

I just watched this movie last night, and I can see this movie as being one you either really like, or you really hate. I personally found it very interesting, especially in the portrayal of suburbia being "perfect," but when you look closer everyone has just as many flaws as any other person. The performances are solid as well as the soundtrack, but sometimes the movie moves a little slow, but then again what movie doesn't? If you are not tired of the typical teen angst movie, then I suggest this movie. Although some people gave this a very bad review, I suggest you to just keep an open mind while watching it, you probably won't be disappointed. There are only a few flaws throughout the movie, and also it exaggerates parents not paying attention to their kids very much and has a few unbelievable moments, but some of it is just because of the satire. I really liked this movie and I hope you do too!

This movie (please don't call it a "film") is a mish-mosh of styles, themes and techniques lifted from the library of films these dudes must have adored in their short lives (movies like Heathers and Edward Scissorhands). All of these wishful elements that hope to become a film never gel. It really can be summed up in one word: boring. It tries way too hard but ultimately says nothing. Do we need another movie about disaffected teens in a twisted, exaggerated suburbia with crazy Danny Elfmanesque music? Yeah, there's a lot of "hype" about the movie. That's what you get when people spend $ advertising and realize they made a mistake in financing this project. A few performances are good but most are two dimensional. The whole film is two dimensional and superficial, which is ironic because if you try real hard to piece together a theme for this project I think the kids who made it were trying to make a statement against such superficiality. If you find yourself noticing the blue eyeliner on "Crystal's" eyes so much you have to draw only one conclusion -- the story is SO boring, that I'm watching the chick's eyeliner.

We saw this movie at the academy and most in the audience were 70+ years old. But these folks have worked in the business their whole lives and know movies. Guess what they did at the end of the movie? They hissed! The auditorium was full of hissing seniors. Never once have I been to a screening at the academy and heard grandma and grandpa hissing. That was the most entertaining part of the entire evening.

If you want to see an artful film about teenagers go rent "The Virgin Suicides". There's a film where technique exists as a storytelling device as opposed to the technique used in Chumscrubbers which merely exists as a mechanism for the filmmakers to show how "cool" they are.

I was caught off guard with this movie. I had heard great things about it and knew it was gonna be pretty good but I didn't expect it to actually deliver so well. All of the (young) cast are really great actors and am looking forward to more of their work. Glenn Close was good in it and so were most of the other adults. I've heard a lot of people compare this movie to Donnie Darko and I don't really get that. Although DD is a really good movie it's totally about two different things. I thought that Rory Culkin was underused and should have had at least one more scene in the movie. Billy (Justin Chatwin) who at first didn't seem really believable as the school bully(he seemed too pretty boy) ended growing on me and I actually started to have a strong dislike for the kid. Crystal (Camilla Belle) did a great job as well. Dean (Jamie Bell) has really gotten my interest too. He's a great actor and I look forward to whatever it is he does next. I highly recommend watching this movie and in fact have already told about 10 people about it.

I just saw this at Sundance, and I sincerely hope this film ends up with distributor and a good marketing campaign, because it is worthy of a wider audience. What was particularly interesting was listening to the director's comments after the film. He pointed out that his biggest challenge in working with this extremely talented ensemble cast was making sure everyone was on the same page in terms of mood. "It's not exactly a drama and it's not exactly a comedy," he said. "We didn't want them playing for laughs, although there are some comedic moments, obviously." Now, usually when movies can't figure out their tone, it's a kiss of death. But this film succeeded because of, not despite, it's delving into the gray area between drama and comedy. The result was a movie about teens that didn't play like a "teen movie," at all. It doesn't exploit and it doesn't play down to any sort of perceived teen audience. Part of that was due to the excellent cast. Jamie Bell was sensational. The adults were equally solid, particularly Glenn Close. I'm interested in seeing how this film is marketed. Some comments I've seen have been critical of the title, but it makes perfect sense once you know the story. All in all, this is one of those movies that obviously started with a great story — full of dramatic tension and social satire — and built from there. All too rare these days.

Awful. Just another stick-it-to-suburbia watered-down David Lynch/American Beauty/Donnie Darko/Larry Clark pastiche. It's all about confused teenagers (yawn) and clueless parents (big yawn) and all those pills they keep popping. The filmmakers think they're creating some clever, witty satire but they're just banging the same nails into the same spots that we've all seen before. It's a soul-less drone making a film about soul-less drones. But these phony create-a-cult indie films always find chuckleheads all too easily floored by this kind of material, so it will be praised to the skies by some. They'll find the dolphin imagery deep and mysterious, and the idle kidnapping of a young boy a comment on the new generation's dis-association from criminality and its consequences. And those parents, all so corrupted and uncomprehending of their children's lives, and so consumed with maintaining appearances. Gosh, I haven't seen stuff like this since.... since I last turned on my TV set at primetime. But, golly, ain't it funny when a kid gets killed by a cop in a car crash and no one cares because they're stoned, and even the cop takes no notice (the dead kid splattered across his shattered windshield) because his mind is on other things. What, no musical number, ala Monty Python's 'Always Look on the Bright Side of Life"? Oh, but we do get a video game wraparound that gives us the title of the film. Too bad the title is useless and meaningless either as the game's title or the film's.