Chumscrubber

[Bill Anderson]

Watched it last night and was interested enough to view the "making of"
documentary and listen to the commentary track too. I enjoyed it, I
suppose, but I can think of no one in my circle of friends who'd
appreciate it very much -- nobody to whom I'd recommend it, except maybe
... AFP. Yeah, sure, AFP. They'd appreciate something like this.

The movie reminded me of Donnie Darko, only it made less sense, if that
makes sense. There are some semi-big names in the cast, like Ralph
Fiennes and Glenn Close and that British ballet dancer kid Jamie Bell,
who spoke with a remarkably convincing American accent. I kept
thinking, "I thought he was British," but I couldn't hear any sign of
it. I actually went back and listened to his closing speech to Glenn
Close again, and sure enough, little British inflections are there to be
heard if you pay attention. But golly, he's good. And filling out the
rest of the cast are people like the press secretary from West Wing,
Allison Janney, and that Matrix woman Carrie-Anne Moss, and "Jonesy"
from Carnivale, Tim DeKay, and John Heard and Rory Culkin and some other
familiar faces. It's interesting to me that the producers could hire
such an impressive cast for this rather strange project.

Chumscrubber is really just another in a long line of alienated youth
movies, distinguished mainly by some amusing, quirky wrinkles in the
story. You gotta admit that it's probably not as easy as it once was to
come up with a fresh angle on a suburban teen angst plot, but
Chumscrubber pretty much delivers. The title refers to a fictional
comic-book character, and yeah, I know, most comic book characters are
fictional, but what I mean is this character was invented for the movie.

In the world of this movie, the Chumscrubber is a pop-culture character
who has lost his head in a nuclear explosion, but he's not dead so he
carries his head around by the hair and ... does teen angsty stuff in an
apocalyptic world, I suppose. It's hard to tell -- mostly he shows up
in comics, posters and figurines scattered throughout the movie, along
with a Chumscrubber computer game that all the kids seem to be playing
at one time or another. And sometimes he shows up as sort of a
character in the movie.

As the story begins, Jamie Bell's best friend is a drug dealer at the
high school who keeps everybody happy until the day he hangs himself at
home while his mom is throwing a big party. Jamie stops by and
discovers the body, but he doesn't tell anybody, of course, because in
this movie the teens and the adults don't communicate ... at least not
until the very end of the film when the teen angst tension is released
and a boy actually talks to an adult and the adult actually listens and
the tears flow and we all learn to our great surprise that life would be
so much easier if we all listened to each other and kept our eyes peeled
for dolphins, doncha know.

There's a lot more in the story involving some bad kids who look less
like thugs than Abercrombie and Fitch models who kidnap Jamie Bell's
little brother in order to blackmail Jamie into finding the dead kid's
stash of drugs. Only the bad kids kidnap the wrong boy and end up with
a Jr. High tuba player who enjoys being a kidnap victim because he can
drink and smoke and say bad words. And like I indicated, there are
pictures of dolphins all over the place. Why? I dunno. Neither did
the screenwriter -- at least that's what he said on the commentary
soundtrack.

The teens are troubled, the adults are daffy, the movie is darkly funny,
and the music is very reminiscent of Donnie Darko. I kept expecting the
orchestra on the soundtrack to segue into "Mad World," but it never did.
Sure sounded like it was about to most of the time, though.

Worth watching once, if only for Glenn Close's hilarious, touching,
spooky performance.

--
Bill Anderson

I am the Mighty Favog

[Lefty Skywalker]

Amazing how once all our real problems were dealt with, we invented
existential angst to keep ourselves unhappy.

--
Daniel O. Miller

"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the
fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true
science. Whosoever does not know it and can no longer marvel, is as good
as dead, and his eyes are dimmed." - Albert Einstein

WWYD? (-o-) <*> Genesis 49:17

Real email address: darth dot lefty at golf mike able india lima.

[C'Pi]

I've never seen Donnie Darko.

C'Pi

[Bill Anderson]

I believe you'd like it. Or perhaps you wouldn't. It's that sort of
movie. Aficianados claim the original theatrical release is better than
the DVD release because for the DVD the director decided to go back and
re-work the film and change this and change that and add things and
remove things and just generally make the picture conform to his
original vision. Sound familiar? I actually like the second,
easier-to-figure out version better than the first. Now that I think
about it, I'm not sure I've ever seen the original -- I've read about
it, though. And either version is a richer, more rewarding movie than
Chumscrubber. Which I believe you'd like. Or perhaps you wouldn't.

[C'Pi]

I'll download both and watch. I never download movies, but since they will
never get to the local Blockbuster it's my only choice. I'll probably like
them. Or not.

C'Pi

[Pork Coffee]

You know I always go on about being forgetful, like if someone says to
me, "Give me a line from your favorite song," I go totally blank.
However, last night as I was typing away at some project and Nan and I
were trying to recover from pudding cake overdoses (my mum can eat
anything, bless her--Porkins must smile on her) The Chumscrubber came
on TV and I remembered this thread.

I finally got to see Chumscrubber! :D

Loved it. Everyone was so crazy it was fabulous. Thanks, Bill!

Hanky Huckleberry
--
*wheezing* in the humid air.