The Chumscrubber

[Brian in Mesa]

The Chumscrubber

Release Date: August 5, 2005 (limited; NY & LA release: August 26)
Studio: Newmarket Films
Director: Arie Posin
Screenwriter: Zac Stanford
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: R (for language, violent content, drug material and some sexuality)
Website: Chumscrubber

Starring: Jamie Bell, Camilla Belle, Justin Chatwin, Glenn Close, Rory Culkin, William Fichtner, Ralph Fiennes, John Heard, Lauren Holly, Allison Janney, Josh Janowicz, Carrie-Anne Moss, Lou Taylor Pucci, Rita Wilson

Plot Summary: A surreal cautionary tale about an alienated youth forced to confront the disconnect between parents and teenagers in suburbia.

In The Chumscrubber, all of the adults in Hillside are attempting to live perfect lives, each chasing after some great goal, some big brass ring they expect will make them happy, some ideal of American perfection in a landscape where the grass is always green and the trees are always 14 feet tall and spaced exactly 12 feet apart.

Meanwhile, right under the noses of their parents, neglected children are killing themselves, hooked on antidepressants, and hatching kidnapping plots. And everywhere there is “The Chumscrubber.” A totemic pop culture presence that prowls his own post-apocalyptic landscape peopled with subhuman demons and freaks, the ubiquitous, headless “Chumscrubber” bubbles up in television cartoons, in violent video games, on posters and T-shirts and stickers and rearview mirrors.

 

[Stout]

Looks quite intriguing.

 

[Pariah]

I watched it this morning. Pretty good. I was expecting indy-quality/style cinemetography, but it was really sharp.

I felt like it dragged on a bit, and the ending was a little too neat and tidy, but overall a pretty compelling flick.

 

[Pariah]

Also, I didn't really care for or get the whole reason for the "Chumscrubber" scenes. I think it might have been a better movie without them.

 

[Mulli]

This movie is on right now. Boring with a capital ZZZZZ.

 

[Mulli]

Update: Now it has gone from boring to stupid.

 

[schutd]

I thought it was fantastic. I agree with Jason to a degree, but the chumscrubber scenes served as the alternate reality created by the heavy medicating, right? So therefore, kind of important, just not put on the screen very well I guess.

 

[Mulli]

Fantastic? That "bully" was the scrawniest, pipsqueekiest bully ever.

 

[schutd]

And thats your reason for disagreeing?

 

[Mulli]

That was just one. I didn't want to overdo it. Ralph Fiennes(sp?) character paints dolphins on the walls? The annoying phone conversations between the boy character and the girl character.

The teens cart around the kidnapped kids for what seemed like three weeks and no one notices?

The lame scene when the boy character has visions of the dead kid in his room?


I did enjoy seeing the cop from the Sopranos.

 

[Bada0Bing]

I did enjoy seeing the cop from the Sopranos.

I always enjoy seeing old Sopranos characters pop up in movies!

This wasn't one of the better indy films I've seen, but it was still worth watching. The scene with the eye completely caught me off-guard.