NEW TWIST ON AN OLD THEME

Time to breathe a little life back into the dormant Balcony. We checked out THUMBSUCKER (in two installments) over the past few nights. This is one we had intended to see in the theater (Mike looooooves Tilda Swinton), but as so often happens, it was gone before we got around it.

Definitely relying a little heavily on the Wes Anderson-style formula, with the use of music, the dysfunctional family, the wacky editing. Not a great film, but the kid, Lou Pucci, did a nice job, and I have to say, both of the Vince's (D'Onofrio and Vaughn) shocked me with their chops. I had never seen either of them on screen before, and they both took me quite by surprise. I thought the relationship between Justin and his dad was wonderfully subtle, and avoided many of the usual cliche traps and hystrionics. Worth checking out, I would say, but don't expect to be blown away. A nice little film.