Thumbsucker

Mills’ gentle film is a creeper-upper, starting out a little wooden in its pasted-shaded credits but evening out into an unexpectedly endearing study of odd-duck syndrome.

I have focused on Justin, but really the movie is equally about the adult characters, who all seem to have lacked adequate parenting themselves.

Although Thumbsucker (...) never feels uncontrolled, its plotting realistically mimics a teenager’s adriftness and tendency toward hairpin-turn mood shifts.