Underplayed Gems

The Chumscrubber (2005)

The Chumscrubber poster
Directed by
Arie Posin
Genre
drama film, comedy drama, teen film
Country
Germany, United States
Runtime
1h 48m
Rated
R
Rating
6.5 of 10 from 223 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
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How it feels

After a teenage drug dealer kills himself, a chain of events unfolds in a picture-perfect suburban town. The story follows a quiet teen who gets caught up with a classmate and the dead boy's parents.

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What happens

The Chumscrubber (German: Glück in kleinen Dosen) is a 2005 comedy drama film directed by Arie Posin starring an ensemble cast led by Jamie Bell as the main protagonist, and Justin Chatwin as the central antagonist. The plot, written by Posin and Zac Stanford, focuses on the chain of events that follow the suicide of a teenage drug dealer in an idealistic but superficial town. Some of the themes addressed in the film are the lack of communication between teenagers and their parents and the inauthenticity of suburbia. The titular Chumscrubber is a character in a fictional video game that represents the town and its inhabitants. Posin and Stanford had originally planned to shoot the film using their own funds, but they sent the script to producers Lawrence Bender and Bonnie Curtis who agreed to produce the film and help to raise the budget. Bell was cast in the lead role after an extensive auditioning process, and the film was shot in various California locations over 30 days in April 2004. The Chumscrubber premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 2005, and was released theatrically on August 26, 2005. An accompanying soundtrack, composed mostly by James Horner, was released on October 18, 2005. The film was both a critical and commercial disappointment as it received mixed-to-negative reviews and earning back only US$351,401 of its $10 million budget. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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