- available formats: 35mm

Thumbsucker - a film by Mike Mills

Starring: LOU PUCCI, TILDA SWINTON, VINCE VAUGHN, VINCENT D’ONOFRIO, BENJAMIN BRATT and KEANU REEVES

The directorial debut of Mike Mills, adapted by Mills from the novel by Walter Kirn

2005 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL - LOU PUCCI, WINNER, SPECIAL JURY PRIZE FOR ACTING
2005 BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL – LOU PUCCI, WINNER, SILVER BEAR FOR BEST ACTOR
2005 EDINBURGH FILM FESTIVAL – MIKE MILLS, THE GUARDIAN NEW DIRECTORS AWARD
2005 TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL – OFFICIAL SELECTION

“Pucci is an actor to watch: He rides this spellbinder without softening the truths that plague the thumbsucker in all of us.”
Peter Travers – ROLLING STONE

It’s not easy growing up, no matter what age you are...

Justin Cobb (LOU PUCCI) still sucks his thumb at 17.  He wants to stop and knows that his thumbsucking is disrupting his family, his love life and his identity.  The only thing that changes his behavior is hypnosis therapy administered by his “guru” orthodontist.  But while Justin felt this would solve all his problems and he would finally be “normal,” his troubles were really just beginning.  Thumbsucking was only a symptom of a deep-seated fear: that he and his father aren’t good enough for his mother, and that she would leave them.  Thumbsucking was the only way to soothe this fear.  Once that is gone Justin spirals into manic behavior, is diagnosed with ADHD and put on Ritalin, which becomes a substitute for his thumb.  When the high of the prescription drugs and a newfound success at school crash, Justin turns to pot and sex to replace his thumb.

 

2005, USA, 95 minutes.