Thumbsucker
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: September 16, 2005 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
69
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
28
Mixed:
5
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Quiet, quirky gem. Read full review
80
Film ThreatBob Westal
Benefits from a goofy yet incisive sense of humor and some extremely strong performances. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Ken Tucker
One of the wonderful things about Thumbsucker is that, unlike so many movies in which a character changes in order to propel the plot forward, this one stops to follow up on the consequences of those changes. Read full review
80
The New York TimesDana Stevens
Mr. Pucci, emerging slowly from behind a stray lock of brown hair, plays Justin's ambiguous transformation with deft understatement. And Mike Mills, who wrote and directed, keeps the film from slipping either into melodrama or facile satire, the two traps into which this genre is most apt to fall. Read full review
80
The New YorkerDavid Denby
It feels fresh, almost improvised, mainly because Mills doesn’t drive his scenes toward an obvious resolution. Read full review
80
Dallas ObserverMelissa Levine
Supremely enjoyable. Read full review
80
EmpireDamon Wise
A refreshingly low-key treatment of teenage trauma, with a lovely star performance and an unforgettable approach to orthodontics. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleKimberley Jones
It's the kind of movie that lives and dies by a viewer's own idiosyncrasies. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Pucci is an actor to watch: He rides this spellbinder without softening the truths that plague the thumbsucker in all of us. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Thumbsucker is true to its nature, and that makes Justin's eventual transformation all the more rewarding. Read full review
75
PremiereGlenn Kenny
The movie has a lot of good bits and terrific performances, including a too-perfect Keanu Reeves as a mystic orthodontist. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsRobert Dominguez
It's Pucci - who's already won a couple of acting prizes on the festival circuit, including Sundance - who steals the film with a wonderful performance blending the awkward innocence, vulnerability and pain of being a teen. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
It's not a great movie, or one that should preoccupy you much afterwards, but it's certainly a good one. It's a fine debut for first-timer Mills. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The movie contains many of the usual ingredients of teenage suburban angst tragicomedies, but writer-director Mike Mills, who began with a novel by Walter Kirn, uses actors who can riff. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerBill White
Most disappointing is the ending, which, in projecting the possibility of a saner and more hopeful world, is a bit of a cop-out. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
A perfectly cast Keanu Reeves pokes deadpan fun at himself in the role of Justin's New Age dentist, who hypnotizes the kid and encourages him to find his inner ''power animal.'' And Vince Vaughn, in a rare straight turn, is excellent as Justin's high school teacher. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
As it stands, the film is perhaps a tad low-key to catch the eye, but it's carefully enough made and, especially, acted, to keep a hold on the brain and heart long after it's over. Read full review
75
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
Pucci pulls off Justin's transformation without resorting to histrionics; it's like a radio-station signal finally coming in clearly. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
Thumbsucker is a head-scratcher. It's well directed and acted. Yet the story has little emotional pull. Read full review
70
VarietyDennis Harvey
Thumbsucker (like "Donnie Darko") is more likely to prosper in the long haul as a home-format cult fave than in its initial arthouse tour. Both offer eccentric humor within a fairly somber overall tone, support-cast surprises, and (to a lesser degree in Thumbsucker) fable-like, hyperreal elements. Read full review
70
Village VoiceJessica Winter
Endearing and well-acted. Read full review
70
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
It's a familiar story, but Mills and Pucci treat it as if it were the first time anyone had thought to tell it. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
American independent movies about awkward adolescence are never in short supply, but this highly assured first feature by commercials and music video director Mike Mills is the first since "Donnie Darko" to view the latter stages of teenagerdom as fodder for a phantasmagorical odyssey of Lewis Carroll–like distortions. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Vince Vaughn in a wonderfully low-key performance. Read full review
70
Washington PostDesson Thomson
A gently stirring symphony about emotional transition filled with lovely musical passages and softly nuanced performances. Read full review
63
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
The film's underlying notion, that imperfection is the essence of humanity and the pursuit of bland flawlessness a kind of soul-killing drug, is far more compelling than its story of clichéd teen angst. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia Puig
The movie and its theme of self-acceptance has an honesty, undercut by occasional preciousness, that makes it worth seeing. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
So no one would argue that Thumbsucker sucks. But the thing does seem just so indie-movie familiar. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
Thumbsucker aims high but swerves too frequently between the engaging and the credibility-defying to be satisfying. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Pucci proves to be one of the most charismatic male ingenues since Johnny Depp. Read full review
50
New York PostV.A. Musetto
The actors can't escape the confines of the warmed-over, coming-of-age-in-suburbia script by Mills, from a novel by Walter Kirn. Read full review
50
SlateDavid Edelstein
The parents are the casualties of Mills' misplaced sincerity, which makes Thumbsucker the quintessential misadapted head-scratcher. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleRuthe Stein
Often amusing but lacks the necessary bite. Read full review
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