Thumbsucker (2005) poster
2005 · comedy · drama · coming-of-age

Thumbsucker

Directed by Mike Mills1h 36m2005
ElsewhereIMDb6.522kRT70%Metacritic69TMDB6.2264
  • brisk
Movie DNA

Neutral, kinetic, measured comedy / drama, inventive in texture. Ambivalent, intimate, measured, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.

How every film is hand-scored →

Justin Cobb, a teenager in suburban Oregon, copes with his thumb-sucking problem, romance, and his diagnosis with ADHD and subsequent experience using Ritalin.

Our read · Thumbsucker (2005) reads as a neutral, kinetic, inventive comedy · drama · coming-of-age entry — measured in intensity, intimate in scope, measured in temperature, ambivalent in outlook. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

Where the cast leads
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The shape of Thumbsucker

Tonight, this looks like

What watching it is actually like.

You want a dry Oregon teen comedy about thumb-sucking, Ritalin, and growing up awkward.

ends bittersweetit stays with youmeditativegrips by minute 14attention 3/5breezes by
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around
Heads-updrug use

Skip it tonightSkip if medicated teen malaise or suburban dysfunction feel too familiar tonight.

DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
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