Official site: http://www.sonyclassics.com/thumbsucker/

Thumbsucker is about a teenager, played by Lou Pucci (who won Best Actor at the Berlin Film Festival this year for his role), who still sucks his thumb. His mother, played by Tilda Swinton, is supposed to be really moving, and his three father figures, played by Vincent D'Onofrio, Vince Vaughn, and Keanu Reeves (the enlightened orthodontist), are, well, special.

The soundtrack is a bunch of new songs by The Polyphonic spree, so fans of orthodontia AND cults basically have to see it.

Opening this Friday at Galaxy Cinema.

2:00, 4:10, 7:20, 9:35

Student tickets are $5.50. Grown-ups pay $7.25 after five. And the beer flows like wine.

10/4/2005 12:09:29 PM

i love cults

i'm there.

10/4/2005 12:34:09 PM

I wanted this movie to fly way under the radar

oh well

10/4/2005 1:01:32 PM

It was going to have an all Elliott Smith soundtrack...but then he died I know there are at least 2 or 3 new unreleased songs by him on there. The director didn't start listening to Polyphonic Spree until after that.

10/4/2005 1:14:56 PM

you had me interested until

Quote :

"The soundtrack is a bunch of new songs by The Polyphonic spree"

so unless they sound totally different (ie they stopped sucking).....

10/4/2005 1:18:14 PM

^^ Yeah, he was going to make it mostly covers. He has Big Star's "13" and Cat Steven's "Trouble" on there, as well as a song released on the "Basement on a Hill" LP.

This movie looks interesting to me.

10/4/2005 1:47:11 PM

Quote :

"I wanted this movie to fly way under the radar"

Why does what anyone thinks, says, or feels about this movie have any effect on it for you. Its not like it a lot of people want to see it they will change the movie. To me that is a lame statement

10/4/2005 2:13:16 PM

^ because he could then say he liked a movie no one else heard of. Once it gets popular, the novelty wears off...

10/4/2005 2:18:23 PM

Yeah, I agree. No matter how good a movie is, basically the sole box office success of an indie movie depends on whether there's commercials on TV or not. It seems like no amount of local or grassroots marketing can outperform three a trailer in any random commercial break. It's a shame, but that's the way it is. If every indie movie stayed under the radar, it would be even harder to keep an indie theater in business.

10/4/2005 2:18:52 PM

Quote :

"Why does what anyone thinks, says, or feels about this movie have any effect on it for you"

clearly you've never watched a movie with a group of people who were expecting A and got B
especially if their distaste is palpable
its like the energy in the room has been washed in bleach and rat poison
their disapproval of the movie (for me) leads to a less enjoyable viewing

i don't know how many times in college we'd have people over for a movie, and i'd have to either change it or get up and leave the room

i guess when you love movies, and i do mean "love", not just fancy them or enjoy them, you feel like you have a connection with them, and when you feel that people aren't appreciating said movie, its like an insult...

if that makes me a movie snob
fuck off

i'd rather sit in a theater alone, enjoying a movie

but i do understand spookyjon's point

10/4/2005 2:30:54 PM

Yeah, I'm totally with teh woodfeet on this one.

10/4/2005 2:39:31 PM

^^ Yeah I hear ya!! I used to try and get people to watch movies I loved only to have them be like "WTF is this?!?!?!, do you have The Ring??? OMG that movie was sooo scary!!!1"

10/4/2005 2:46:20 PM

Quote :

"i like movies more than most people and i don't mean i like movies to a greater extent than the average person i mean i like movies more than i like most people"

10/4/2005 2:46:23 PM

We should start a club.

But each person has meetings when they're alone.

10/4/2005 2:47:38 PM

whats great is when people are like "yeah, i'll go see that with you!"

and then you're like "yeah, thats cool, lets do that"

and then go see it without them anyways

10/4/2005 2:48:40 PM

Haha, I told my now gf that I used to go see movies by myself all the time because it was relaxing and enjoyable. She just looked at me and said "that's so sad, nobody would go with you?"

Some people just don't get it

10/4/2005 2:54:20 PM

nothing is better than a weekday matinee

10/4/2005 2:56:45 PM

Quote :

"If every indie movie stayed under the radar, it would be even harder to keep an indie theater in business. "

Not to mention I'm sure everyone involved with making the movie wants to stay under the radar and be seen by as few people as possible

Lou's a good actor. He also won Best Actor at Sundance for Thumbsucka, was good in Fifty Pills whenever it comes out, and plays a white kid acting like a black kid in Rich Kelly's Southland Tales.

10/4/2005 3:52:18 PM

there are plenty of people making movies that detest the idea of their movie becoming "popular"

10/4/2005 3:56:37 PM

Of course, there are plenty of people making movies that like to get their bills paid.

10/4/2005 4:42:36 PM

Woodfoot and spookyjon I have gone through the same things so instead of worrying if other people will like a movie like this just watch it by yourself.

10/4/2005 4:43:21 PM

yes
we all agree with that

thats why i wanted this movie to fly under the radar
so when i buy it
none of my friends will be like "OMG WE HAVE TO WATCH THAT"

10/4/2005 4:49:10 PM

then you just say fuck off, or watch it first on the sneak tip

10/4/2005 4:50:21 PM

you don't get it...

10/4/2005 4:56:34 PM

I understand what you're saying I just think you are too much of a movie snob

10/4/2005 5:03:14 PM

Quote :

"if that makes me a movie snob fuck off"

10/4/2005 5:35:18 PM

i used to go to the movies alone every week, the only thing better is having NO ONE in the theater with you.

my girlfriend has very similar taste in movies though so we agree on most choices.

10/4/2005 6:28:24 PM

just watched my AVR tape of Arrested Development from last night and saw the commercial

it made me sad until i remembered

nobody watches arrested development

10/4/2005 8:28:52 PM

Hahahahhaha.

bobloblaw

10/4/2005 8:29:37 PM

analrapist

10/4/2005 8:32:10 PM

i saw this movie advertised alongside judge joe brown

10/4/2005 8:32:23 PM

Quote :

"if that makes me a movie snob fuck off"

it not only makes you a snob

but it makes you pathetic as well to have other peoples opinions of a stupid fucking movie affect how much you enjoy it.

10/5/2005 11:20:41 AM

Quote :

"there are plenty of people making movies that detest the idea of their movie becoming "popular" "

Not anyone who plans on making a movie after that one, especially independent filmmakers. See, even the cheapest indie film costs around $250k, and if a movie is not popular enough to even make its money back, then when a filmmaker wants to make ANOTHER movie, unless they have some rich uncle who doesn't give a crap about throwing money away, they're not going to convince anyone to fork over thousands of dollars to make the movie.

Granted, some filmmakers detest the thought of being "mainstream," like Jim Jarmusch, but nobody sets out to make a movie they hope nobody sees. It's stupid to even think someone would put all the time, effort, and energy into making a movie just so nobody will ever see it or connect with it.

10/5/2005 12:06:52 PM

clearly i understand the difference between "popular" and "unwatched"

the question is, do you?

10/5/2005 12:09:09 PM

this one looks like a winner

i'd also like to jump on the little watched movies bandwagon

if i were to wander around the office and ask people about the last 10 movies i watched nobody would've heard of any of them, but i bet if they watched it they'd like it

as an aside i just watched happy endings and it's all gone pete tong this weekend and both were quality films, i higly recommend them

10/5/2005 12:22:44 PM

how can something be popular if it was not watched? Maybe you are missing the difference between popular and mainstream. To me, a popular movie is one that makes money and people like. Sure, some people don't care if an audience doesn't like their movie, but they will care if it doesn't make any money and thus makes it ten times harder to get loot to make another movie.

A mainstream movie to me is one that is wildly popular and becomes something else entirely, like Titanic, which was a really good movie that turned into this teenybopper phenomenon that turned everyone else off to the thing.

I questioned your statement that "there are plenty of people making movies that detest the idea of their movie becoming "popular" and you failed to even provide one example of that, because anyone, except for possibly a few high minded "auteurs" who care only about their art and to hell with the rest, but you don't really hear too much about them, because they aren't around long enough to build a following. If "Swingers" wasn't popular, Vince Vaughn wouldn't have been in Wedding Crashers, Jon Favreau wouldn't have done "Elf" or "Zathura," and Doug Liman wouldn't have done "Bourne Identity" or "Mr. and Mrs. Smith."

The notion of an indie film becoming popular may be sickening to you, but to everyone involved with that film its a giant career boost and leads to bigger and better things (and budgets). So just because you don't like it when a little indie film breaks through does not mean everyone involved feels the same way (cause I can tell you, after working on one, if someone said man I hope this movie isn't popular, you would get bitch slapped back into reality)

10/5/2005 12:25:26 PM

heh, happy endings

yeah, whenever i go to dc
people are always like "hey lets go out to *some bar/club*"
and i'm always like "uhm, sorry i have other plans"
and just go to the Landmark on E street and bask in the indie goodness

10/5/2005 12:26:05 PM

There's nothing wrong with people loving a movie that nobody else knows about, it makes it like their own little thing and nobody elses, and I'm the same way with some things. My whole point is that those involved want as many people to see their stuff as possible, because for you its entertainment, but for them its their livelihood.

10/5/2005 12:27:53 PM

i'm still gonna go with a big vast difference between "popular" and "unwatched"

i'll even take it to say that there is a big difference between "popular" and "succesful"

a film can be quite successful without it becoming "Napoleon Dynamite" where every fucktard across america thinks saying "Gosh" is the funniest thing ever

10/5/2005 12:34:08 PM

and as far as an example

we'll look at my favorite film of the year: Me and You and Everyone we know

when ms. july was finishing that movie
which do you think she was saying

1. i hope this movie finds an audience that will really connect with what we tried to do here

or

2. MAN I HOPE OUR BOX OFFICE KILLS "STEALTH"!!!1

10/5/2005 12:36:38 PM

i agree to some extent and people do some work to make money, but it's also art, so there are other motivations involved, i'm sure that every great artist has done a comission piece to pay the rent, but it's not like van goh sat around going "i'm going to paint puppies because that product will move!"

the only point that i think everyone can get on board with is that people put out a movie hoping that it is well received. if it's by 100 people or 100 million may not make a difference to some people.

the point jackal may be missing is that if it's out there someone with money made the call that it was worth the investment, if it didn't pan out then they probably didn't have all their eggs in one basket and who's to say which movie out of 1,000 is going to be a breakout hit that returns 5000% on your investment (as opposed to the $80 million hollywood film that eeks out $4 million profit)

it's like VC or pharma or any other industry where you use a shotgun approach - you hope lots of people see everything you do, but that's just not the case so you may salvage what you can - like hey it was a good movie, or i learned a lot from that role

if people's careers went bust over a non-commercial success indie movie there wouldn't be a film industry at all


[Edited on October 5, 2005 at 12:41 PM. Reason : jj]

10/5/2005 12:40:24 PM

THE VIET CONG?

10/5/2005 12:51:48 PM

I really wanted to get this film on the same day as Chumscrubber. ALAS.

10/6/2005 12:12:44 PM

how much money did Stealth make, btw

10/6/2005 12:48:40 PM

83 bucks nationwide.

10/6/2005 12:50:32 PM

international market: 14 yen and a couple torn euros

10/6/2005 12:55:12 PM

and $10 was from his mom.

10/6/2005 12:55:32 PM

i want to see this movie this weekend
so
see you this weekend spookyjon

10/6/2005 1:39:04 PM

OMG let me prepare my tww spottings post!

10/6/2005 1:45:29 PM

It was good. It was really fucking good.

10/7/2005 1:02:38 AM