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.
[6] 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.
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.
Troy Johnson, the supplier of prescription drugs to fellow high school students in the fictional southern California town of Hillside, commits suicide.
Meanwhile, Charlie Stiffle crushes the real drugs and intentionally puts them into a casserole that his mother made for Troy's memorial.
The next day is Troy's memorial service and the wedding of Mayor Michael Ebbs to Charlie Bratley's mother Terri.
The title of the film refers to a video game character, "The Chumscrubber", who helps his friends to survive in a superficial world by keeping things authentic, and is portrayed as a post-apocalyptic hero, carrying his severed head in his hand as he fights the forces of evil.
Nathan Baran of Hybrid Magazine was frustrated by the lack of explanation of the motif, saying: "Never are dolphins discussed by anyone else to have any meaning whatsoever.
[9] While working at a Hollywood talent agency Arie Posin had been writing scripts for 10 years, "trying to break in[to]" the film industry, when he decided that he would rather be a director than a screenwriter.
[7] Because they collaborated on the story, Posin later described the film as "rooted somewhere between" his own memories of growing up in suburban Irvine, CA and Stanford's upbringing in a small town in the Pacific Northwest.
The site's critical consensus states "This derivative poke at suburbia falls short of delivering a scathing indictment of upper middle-class disconnect.
[23] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film 1 star out of 5, describing it as "an appallingly clumsy and stupid take on drugs, kidnapping and suicide in suburbia".
[24] A. O. Scott expressed similar sentiments in The New York Times, calling the film "dreadful" and criticizing its unoriginality.
[25] Variety's Scott Foundas also wrote that the film "doesn't have an original bone in its body or a compelling thought in its head" and called it "insufferable", "self-conscious" and "smug".
Club's Keith Phipps praised Posin's technical direction and the cast's acting skills, but found that the film still fell "flat on its face".
[27] The film was more warmly received by David Sterritt of The Christian Science Monitor, who described it as "dreamily surreal, acutely intelligent, and strikingly tough-minded" and called it a "stunning directorial debut".
The special features included on the disc are an audio commentary from Arie Posin, a 12-minute "making-of" featurette, and 10 deleted and extended scenes.
Though Horner's previous work comprised mostly high-budget studio films – including Titanic (1997), Braveheart (1995), The Mask of Zorro (1998), and Apollo 13 (1995) – producer Bonnie Curtis approached him to score The Chumscrubber because "You never know until you ask."