Monday, May 19, 2008

Sore Thumb

An indie comedy:

Thumbsucker:

I love a good indie movie. They're often times some of the best movies. But they can have an unfortunate habit of sometimes going too hard for that "indie feel." This is one of those films. It's still a fairly good film, but everything about it, from its visual style, to the production design and the overly quirky supporting characters screams indie. Which is just a little too much. A little more subtlety would have been appreciated.

The scoring:

Writing:
The characters do have a tendency to talk a little bit in speeches. It can make everything feel like the debate sequences. But the dialogue is still pretty good. The characters are fairly interesting, if a little over quirky. 0.75/1

Directing:
The visual style is a little much. The constant need to begin scenes with the slow pan over to reveal what's actually happening grated on me a bit. The pacing was fairly good, just a little slow. 0.7/1

Acting:
Lou Pucci is fairly good as the lead character. Especially for someone with very little experience. The supporting cast is mostly very good, especially Tilda Swinton, Vincent D'Onofrio, and Vince Vaughn. Keanu Reeves is pretty much playing the same sort of thing as always. 0.75/1

Technical:
It's low budget and it shows it. Nothing too special or spectacular. 0.55/1

History:
Not very well known. Didn't have a huge historical impact. 0.3/1

Entertainment:
It drags a little in the middle, but it was still fairly entertaining. 0.7/1

Misc.:
0.1 for the scene with Benjamin Bratt outside the rehab place. Just weird enough to work. 0.1 for the debate scenes. Seemed like a fairly realistic portrayal of debate.

Overall: 3.95/6.8

Pretty good, but not great.

0 comments: