Chumscrubber review

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Gillian
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Chumscrubber review

Post by Gillian » Wed Aug 03, 2005 9:58 am

Courtesy of AICN ...

Quint rips off his head and joins forces with THE CHUMSCRUBBER!

Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a little review of the upcoming flick THE CHUMSCRUBBER, an indie with a stellar fucking cast. This movie will have a huge following, I just can't tell if that following will appear right now or when it hits DVD, like DONNIE DARKO. I hope the people show up for this flick in the theaters, I really do. It's a great audience movie. On one level it's a comedy and that comedy really hits the best when the laughter from a couple hundred people hit your ears. On another level it's a pretty serious drama and to feel the energy of the room pulsate depending upon who is on screen at any given time (ie, love for a certain character, remorse for another, etc).

Like I said, the following on this film with be big. It's darkly comic, it's got a great cast of familiar faces and the best of the best of tomorrow's talent, got just enough surrealism to it to make it interesting, but isn't bogged down with the stuff and it flows. There isn't a minute of the film that I felt went on too long. That's impressive from a filmmaker who has made a dozen flicks, but considering CHUMSCRUBBER is Arie Posin's first film that's pretty outstanding.

The screening I attended tonight had Arie Posin and producer Bonnie Curtis who introduced the film and held a brief Q&A afterwards. During the Q&A one of the audience commented that the film felt like DONNIE DARKO in ET's neighborhood. I find it hard to believe she didn't read that in someone's Sundance coverage as that line feels too much like smarmy critic-speak, but I have to admit that it's not a bad description of the flick. You get a feeling of what the film is that way, but at the same time that's not exactly right, either. There's too much going on in this movie to melt it down like that.
I went into the film knowing nothing about it and I suggest you do the same. I'm not going to go deeply into the plot or the specifics of these characters, but I didn't even realize the quality of actor that popped up in the film. That worked very well for my viewing and I suggest you check your local listings and see the movie without watching the trailer or reading anything specific.

What impressed me the most was the cast...I love a good ensemble film and this is certainly a good ensemble film. The kids of the cast are Jamie Bell (BILLY ELLIOT, KING KONG), Justin Chatwin (WAR OF THE WORLDS), Camilla Belle (tons of small roles as a little girl, but relatively unknown... star of the upcoming THE QUIET, BALLAD OF JACK AND ROSE and WHEN A STRANGER CALLS remake), Lou Taylor Pucci (star of the upcoming THUMBSUCKER), Rory Culkin (the one that was in MEAN CREEK and SIGNS) and Thomas Curtis (another relative unknown, but played Billy Leeds in RED DRAGON).

These guys represent the next generation and you see exactly why in this film. No one really does anything mind-blowingly extraordinary, but each of the four leads (Chatwin, Bell, Pucci and Belle) shine in their own unique ways. The camera loves all four of them, Camilla Belle especially. She is gorgeous and absolutely radiant, even if her character isn't immediately likable. Her character "Crystal" is a weak person who knows right from wrong, but still does wrong even though you can tell she wants to do the right thing... It's almost harder to ask the audience to like a character like that than one that's out and out bad. But Camilla's beauty and vulnerability help ease you into liking her.

Justin Chatwin plays a character that's full of posturing and alpha-male like arrogance, but we also get a few moments when he's bitten off more than he can chew and you can see how small he really is inside. He's also got a touch of insanity to him that plays really well, especially at the end, but through it all he gushes an undeniable charm.

Lou Taylor Pucci's character is essentially Chatwin's lackey, but there's a sort of quiet innocence to him. I don't believe he's the sharpest pencil in the box and he certainly does make some terrible decisions, but he always seemed to be knee-jerking trying to get out of a bad situation. He has a great scene at the end of the film where he goes a little crazy-insane.

Jamie Bell is the lead of the flick. He had a lot to carry... as great as the supporting cast is if Bell had dropped the ball then the movie would have failed. There's a lot of emotion bubbling under his skin that he keeps suppressing throughout the movie. He's an outsider and like everyone else at his school is addicted to these "happy pills" that allow him to ignore the seriousness of life. He's no zombie walking through this movie... I don't want to give that impression. He's low key, but definitely a person. He's entertaining, he's likable and he handles his dramatic scenes perfectly. There are some pretty complicated moments he has, some dialogue and very layered revelations that Bell handles perfectly, like a great dancer hitting each step perfectly.

With the DONNIE DARKO similarities aside, Bell is really positioning himself into the same place Jake Gyllenhaal did. He's great in this, he's great in DEAR WENDY (coming soon) and from what I saw of his work in KONG he'll turn in a memorable character. Expect to see him lead some studio pictures in the near future... possibly after he does that new Eastwood flick.

The adult cast is also great.

Glenn Close: Awesome actress and given an awesome role... Bubbly, creepy, sad... all at once. Perfect casting!

Ralph Fiennes: Another case of great actor given a great character. Fiennes plays the Mayor and is getting married to Rita Wilson... there's a child's innocence about him that is classic. He looks like he couldn't hurt a fly. The scene with the spilled wine is classic.

Jason Isaacs: Whoa! Voldemort and Lucius Malfoy together before November! Hehe. The Harry Potter geek in me smiled when I saw Isaacs pop up. He's one of my favorite character actors working (I loved him in PETER PAN) and plays a villain like no other. However, his role in this flick is rather small, but he does play a good asshole, even if it is only in the form of an overbearing parent.

William Fichtner: Another great character actor... plays Jamie Bell's psychiatrist father. Vain, pompous, yet not unkind. Another complicated role in the film that is handled well.

John Heard: He's a hoot in the movie. Again, it's a very small, but important character. He plays the local town cop that is semi-stalking his ex-wife (Rita Wilson, who is now marrying the mayor). Heard plays the character with a great sense of humor.

Allison Janney: Jamie Bell's vitamin-selling mother. She's got some issues of her own, but on the whole this is one of the warmest characters of the film. Janney is great, as usual.

Carrie-Anne Moss: Camilla Belle's mother in the film and the definition of a MILF. She's very aware of her sexuality and loves using it to get attention from Belle's young male friends. There's even a suggestion of a fling with Justin Chatwin, who is obviously infatuated with her. Moss shows lots of skin and some venom towards her young and beautiful daughter. A fun character. It was good to see Moss step successfully away from Trinity.

Rita Wilson: Is probably the sleaziest person in the movie and a great flip side of Fiennes, who she shares most of her scenes with since they are in the last few days leading up to their wedding. She even has a scene where she rants about how inconsiderate it is of a certain other character to have the memorial for her dead son on the same day as her wedding! She's got , "Bitch" stamped on her forehead, yet I found myself still not writing her off for some reason. It was probably out of my caring for Fiennes' character. Wilson plays it very well.

And what is The Chumscrubber? It's awesome... a fictional character... His image is on the one-sheets and I want a Chumscrubber TV series! I want a video game series of The Chumscrubber! A dude that survives a nuclear blast, wakes up in a world of zombies and mutants... only to find his head separated from his body. He carries it around, using it kinda like Captain America uses his shield or how Thor uses his hammer... He beats the shit out of zombies with it in an animated kids show... Great and fun idea for a hero, of sorts. Of course this is all within the film... or is it?

Anyway, CHUMSCRUBBER is doing a very grass roots indie opening... Opening in only a few cities this weekend, including Austin, Dallas, Seattle, Portland, Sacramento, Phoenix, Tempe, Orlando and Minneapolis and some suburbs of each. You can see where it's playing by going to the Chumscrubber website here... be sure to click on the showtimes locker!

If you can, give it some support this weekend. It opens wider on the 26th, but I'm not sure exactly where besides NY and LA. This film deserves your support and is a refreshing melding of complex characters and story and straight up entertainment. Too often you only get one of the other.

Thanks for sticking through this long-ass review. I gotta get up early and do me some interviewin'! Be sure to check the site for my upcoming interviews... I gots lots as they say in the auto-parking industry! 'Til then, this is Quint bidding you a fond farewell and adieu!

-Quint

http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=20907

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Marie
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Post by Marie » Wed Aug 03, 2005 10:49 am

He pretty much hits the nail on the head - except that I would not call Jason's character an ass hole - more like an up-tight parent that has no clue at all what his kid is up to. The job - going to the memorial - all takes precidence over the kid - so in the end he just doesn't understand his child or even make an impact on his kid's life.

Other wise I pretty much agreed. I was surprised it did not get more recognition at Sundance.

Marie

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