Film
Thumbsucker
A warmly funny indie film about a seventeen-year-old thumb-sucker navigating suburban Oregon: high school, first love, ADHD medication, and the quiet absurdity of growing up. Mike Mills directs with genuine affection for his characters' small struggles and big feelings. Quirky without being twee, melancholic without being bleak.
If you liked this
The Perks of Being a Wallflower2012
Gentle, observant coming-of-age that finds profundity in adolescent confusion. Captures that exact feeling of being caught between childhood and adulthood, belonging nowhere and everywhere at once.
But If you find maudlin indie-film sincerity exhausting, this leans into it. Some readers find it oversimplified.

Napoleon Dynamite2004
Understated comedy about misfits in a small town, made with the same deadpan affection for oddness. Both films love their unglamorous characters without condescension.
But The humour is so dry and peculiar it can feel like nothing is happening. Patience required.

The Squid and the Whale2005
Another 2005 indie examining adolescence with painful honesty and sharp comedic timing. Portrait of a sensitive kid trying to survive his parents' dissolution and his own confusions.
But Baumbach's family dysfunction is often bleak and unlikeable. Not everyone wants that in their coming-of-age story.

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The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
About a Boy2002
A misfit protagonist learning that people—specifically adults—can help. Both films are essentially about the loneliness of thinking you have to figure everything out alone.
Both films centre on a boy discovering that being cared for—really listened to—matters more than solving his own problems. About a Boy is warmer, more conventionally charming, but carries the same quiet message about human connection underneath the comedy.
But The rom-com machinery sometimes undercuts the sincerity. Less formally experimental than Thumbsucker.

More like this (7)
Boyhood2014
Twelve years of a boy's life in compressed, elliptical moments. The same patient attention to the ordinary textures of growing up, with a similar refusal to make everything dramatic.
But Three hours and twenty minutes of low-key incidents. The gimmick (shot over actual years) matters less than the unhurried pacing.

Ghost World2001
Clementine and Enid are slightly older versions of Justin: alienated, mordant, searching for meaning in a mundane world. Smart, funny, beautifully shot indie that understands teenage sadness.
But The misanthropy can curdle into smugness. Some find the characters insufferable rather than sympathetic.

The Virgin Suicides2000
Sofia Coppola's gorgeous examination of suburban teenage life, mystery, and the gap between interior reality and what the world sees. Lush and melancholic and hypnotic.
But More style than plot. If you need narrative momentum, you'll find it glacial and frustrating.

Rushmore1998
Wes Anderson's affectionate, funny portrait of a misfit teenager. Max Fischer is awkward and delusional in ways that sting; the film never punishes him for being earnest.
But Anderson's symmetrical aesthetic and whimsy aren't for everyone. Can feel precious or mannered if the style doesn't grab you.

Heathers1989
Dark satire of high school hierarchy and peer pressure. Shoots for comedy in serious teenage territory, with a genuine edge that Thumbsucker approaches more gently.
But Pitch-black humour about suicide and murder. If you want warm and fuzzy, this isn't it.

Dazed and Confused1993
Linklater's ensemble comedy about the last day of school in 1976. Less focused on one character, but the same loose-limbed, affectionate observation of teenage life and confusion.
But Meandering and baggy by design. No real plot, which some find aimless.

Ikiru1952
Both track the moment a medical diagnosis becomes the unexpected catalyst for seeing your own life more clearly. Both are genuinely funny about the things we use to avoid feeling.
Kurosawa's masterpiece about a bureaucrat discovering meaning after a diagnosis of terminal illness. Shifts from deadpan comedy to devastating wisdom. The tonal range and the structure of realization are astonishing.
But Black-and-white, Japanese, 1952, and deliberately paced. Requires patience and emotional openness. Not a film that moves fast.

People
Cast
Lou Taylor PucciJustin Cobb
Tilda SwintonAudrey Cobb
Vincent D'OnofrioMike Cobb
Keanu ReevesPerry
Benjamin BrattMatt Schramm
Kelli GarnerRebecca
Chase OfferleJoel Cobb
Vince VaughnMr. Geary
Bob StephensonDebate Official
Nancy O'DellSelf
Dakota GoldhorGirl on Plane
Eric NormingtonHotel Desk Clerk
Directing
- Mike MillsDirector
Writing
- Walter KirnNovel
- Mike MillsScreenplay
Production
- Jeanne McCarthyCasting
- Tilda SwintonCo-Executive Producer
- Anne CareyExecutive Producer
- Bob YariExecutive Producer
- Cathy SchulmanExecutive Producer
- Ted HopeExecutive Producer
- Anthony BregmanProducer
- Bob StephensonProducer