Jamie Bell is So Cute

Tonight Joe and I watched The Chumscrubber (2005) with Jamie Bell (aka Billy Elliot), Ralph Fiennes, Rita Wilson, and Glenn Close. We hardly ever watch movies at home, especially during the week, but Joe’s been sick so we decided to take it easy tonight.

I absolutely adore independent films, and I highly recommend this one. It was a classic dark comedy. It parodied the human condition in a way that was both humorous and poignant. One of the film’s central ironies is misery amidst abundance. And in this film, nothing numbs misery like narcotics. The kids are all either high or medicated or both.

The setting for the film is the suburban sprawl of southern California. I wouldn’t want to reduce the film to a simplistic formula of McMansions and sprawl = insanity; rather, the film uses these things as powerful symbols for the emotional distance and isolation experienced by those living in a consumer culture.

It made me wonder whether it’s possible to raise a sane child in America. I hope Joe and I can figure out a way.