Thumbsucker & Oliver Twist

Thumbsucker has an interesting cast, with Tilda Swinton, Vincent D'Onofrio, Vince Vaughn, Benjamin Bratt, and somehow Keanu Reeves. Yeah, he's actually not bad, and may actually be one of the better things in the film. But the best thing in the film is Elliott Smith's cover of Thirteen, and the rest of the soundtrack by Elliott Smith and The Polyphonic Spree. The film itself is not deep at all, and what teacher would allow their kids to do some of the things Justin was allowed to do. I wonder, though, what the disturbing image was. Was it the thing pulled out of Benjamin Bratt's ass, because that was sort of disturbing. But it could have been anything like Vince Vaughn attempting to be serious or four teenagers in a hotel room and just shocking each other while drunk. Is that how debate actually works in high school? They're allowed to just toss it to random people and question in the middle of a round? That isn't like what I've seen in other movies and television shows about debate competitions. I'm sure everything in media I've seen is right, but what happens when it disagrees with other things in media. You're confusing me vast liberal homosexual gay Hollywood conspiracy!

Oliver Twist is the Polanski version, and thus is very well-made. However, I can't get past the antisemitism of Fagin. And there aren't any particularly interesting aspects to the film. It's just well done, but not great. It's the best version of Oliver Twist I've seen, but I vastly prefer other Dickens.