THE CHUMSCRUBBER (2005)

 

Directed By: Arie Posen 

Story By: Arie Posen and Zac Stanford 

Written By: Zac Stanford

Cinematography: Lawrence Sher 

Editor: William Scharf And Arthur Schmidt 

Cast: Jamie Bell, Camilla Belle, Justin Chatwin, Lou Taylor Pucci, Rory Culkin, Glenn Close, Carrie Anne Moss, Ralph Fiennes, Jason Isaacs, Lauren Holly, Caroline Goodall, William Fichtner, John Heard, Allison Janney, Rita Wilson 

a dark comedy about the lives of people who live in upper-class suburbia. It all begins when Dean Stiffle finds the body of his friend, Troy. He doesn't bother telling any of the adults because he knows they won't care. Everyone in town is too self-consumed to worry about anything else than themselves. And everybody is on some form of drug just to get themselves through the day. After Troy's death, local drug dealers at the school run out of their stash. They convince Dean to get Troy's stash or they are going to kill his brother that they kidnapped, but they grabbed the wrong kid.

This show is an intriguing failure that seems to be some sort of statement or satire on disaffected teens coming apart at the seams in suburbia after tranquilizing themselves on recreational drugs for so long that they seem to be scared of their own emotions. I wish the film played and explored more of what I just described.

Instead, the film seems more interested in the adult characters, who are not as deep and as types. This only makes their stories seem melodramatic or the product of a soap opera. Which makes one wonder how the film got such a powerful cast for a film that feels more like a desperate 

Housewives spin-off

The film seems to shy away from too much depth to focus more on the quirks and offbeat comedy.

The film is all surface but tries too hard at times to seem deep almost like a pretty girl reading an intellectual book and you notice over weeks each time you see her she is on the same page as she only does it for the attention or seems smarter than she might actually be

The ending feels too. The end feels too clean cut which one could see if this was based on pre-existing material but as it is an original production, it could’ve been worked on a bit more. It feels too self-serving, trying to please an audience instead of going for emotional truth.

It ends up playing more like a studio version of an independent coming-of-age film. With the parents so busy with themselves, they never pay attention to their own kids, even after one commits suicide, which might be blatant science for attention and help or even subconscious ones.. though the adults seem to anodize themselves with Work and each other as a form of hiding.

The film tries to tighten it like video games and not feeling real trying to achieve a numbness or doing things so that they can feel something. Not fall into the same traps and behavior as their parents, though it seems they easily follow suit.

Has a good score which other than the cast seems to be the most accomplished thing about it.

Grade: C