Thumbsucker, Mike Mills’s first foray from the world of stylish advertisements and sexy music videos [tdb] makes its way to Seattle this weekend. As part of my “the people at CMJ gave me a shiny badge that allowed me to see this cool thing” series, I thought I’d give you guys a heads up in case you’re having trouble choosing a movie to see as we approach the season of lots of good films being available for your consumption.

In this era of ironic titles, you might not guess that the movie is actually about a kid named Justin (Lou Pucci) who sucks his thumb. It is. Based on a Walter Kirn novel of the same title, this element of the movie’s plot really seemed to gross people out and was something of an obstacle to getting funding. Although it took something like six years, Mills managed to assemble a surprisingly all star cast around Tilda Swinton (credited as a producer) and made his movie. And the rest of the cast is pretty stellar — Vince Vaughn as a high school debate coach, Vincent “creepy detective from Law & Order: CI” D’Nofrio as Justin’s former football star dad, Benjamin Bratt as a small screen idol (o.k., this is more of a stretch than it sounds), and Keanu Reeves as a new-age orthodontist. While this last one may sound like stunt casting, he is actually really good and rather funny in the role as a dentist who believes in hypnosis and power animals as secrets to thumb-avoiding success.

From this description, it’s clear that this isn’t your typical high school comedy. Instead, it’s about trading an uncommon addiction for other typical teenage obsession like sex, drugs, and debate club. Along the way, themes include the ways we deal with being alive, protective familial behavior, the mating ritual of envirochicks, feeling normal, being honest while trying out new personalities. Most of this is beautifully shot with anamorphic lenses and available light.

Because everyone loves a comparison, I’ll predict that if you liked Me and You and Everyone We Know, you might also enjoy Thumbsucker. And not just because both seem to have a thing for white titles on pink backgrounds, although I think there’s a certain sensibility to title design that seems to inform the breed of movie that concerns itself with the intricate and messy details of being human.

Oh, and it has a great soundtrack, with music from Elliott Smith (who was supposed to do the whole score with covers until his untimely demise got in the way) and the Polyphonic Spree (of whom Mills said, “the Spree know about sadness”).

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digression: It’s sort of interesting that the opening of Thumbsucker coincides with the opening of another book adaptation, Everything Is Illuminated. Convergences abound as Elijah Wood was originally cast in the Lou Pucci role, until the perilous funding journey resulted in him being too old to play a seventeen-year-old. The film version of Jonathan Safran Foer’s Everything Is Illuminated, which might be better described as “inspired by” instead of “adaptation of” since it covers about 1/3 of the material from the novel, is also worth your time and $10. This is somewhat of a selfish recommendation — I’m really anxious to talk to someone who has seen the movie without having read the book or the New Yorker excerpt to compare opinions.

this is also to illustrate: I’m pretty much on the same page as The Minor Fall, the Major Lift w/r/t linkola [#].