The Lost Highway: The Chumscrubber
Posted by Mary Markham on 03.31.2006
CHUM: an intimate friend or companion, or sidekick; bait usually consisting of chopped up oily fish
ground up and scattered on the water.
I have lived my 35 years surrounded by the nuclear family on some level or another. As the years passed, the idea of "family" evolved or in my own personal opinion devolved. One thing is for certain, cinema will forever try to capture that unconditional dysfunction by any means necessary. Within the bubble of societal ideas of the family exists the children and inevitably the teenager. Some say that teens have become monstrous parodies of their parents and that the 21st century has ushered in the teen as more violent, sexually active, aggressive and rebellious than it's kinder, gentler predecessors. In some circles this proves to be true. There are many more technological distractions than when I was a teen and advances in technology is the scientific bastard son of isolation. I also believe the nuclear family has disintegrated into absentee parenting and negligent discipline due to some sort of baby boomer guilt. Whatever the problem, teens get a bad rap.
"Chumscrubber" is just the sort of birth control anyone needs if this is what the world is like for children. Because that is exactly what teenagers are: CHILDREN. Unfortunately in this self-absorbed media driven, sexually repressed yet charged environment these kids wear apathy as a birthright. It will never be good enough for them. They could never have enough: things, gadgets, drugs, clothes, sex, love. The movie paints a grim and somewhat nauseating picture of current suburban life. In fact I wasn't sure I even liked it until I realized I wasn't supposed to. It begins with the discovery of the suicide of Troy, best friend to Dean (newbie Jamie Bell). Troy was the king drug dealer at school, pushing all the best pills to troubled teens who need to feel good. Upon finding Troy hanging from the ceiling in his very cozy guest house, while his mother is having a barbeque, Dean immediately turns, leaves and never says a word. His response later to his therapist father was that he didn't think the adults would care. This sets the tone for what type of people we are surrounded by for the next two hours.
Hillside is the fictional upper class, track housing community that these people live in. (Reminiscent of the neighborhoods in "E.T."). Brand new houses whose only flaws are the monsters that occupy them. There is a robotic, almost Stepford feel to this community and the humans that live there. Everyone has their mask on representing well bred, polite and perfect specimens of the all American family.
The underbelly reveals two dimensional relationships amongst the adults and terrifyingly adult like behavior from the children. Dean is an admirable character who doesn't care that he has no friends because he would rather be by himself than belong to a group who is satisfied with torturing others. However Dean is also troubled and has a father (my favorite William Fitchner) who feeds him pills to help him cope, a brother (baby Culkin) who plays video games all day and a mother (thank god for Allison Janney) who puts Martha Stewart to shame. Then of course there are the bullies. Crystal, Billy and Lee (newcomer Lou Pucci) who are determined to force Dean into procuring the drugs that Troy had hidden in his room. In doing so they kidnap Charlie, who they believe is Dean's younger brother. Turns out it's the wrong Charlie but the disgusting Billy (played by Justin Chatwin) decides to keep him anyway.
Throughout all this drama are other horrific characters such as the completely selfish and shallow design guru Terri Brately (deliciously played by Rita Wilson!) gearing up for her second marriage to the Mayor of Hillside, Michael (another creepy performance by Ralph Fiennes) who seems to have had some sort of epiphany about life. Then of course there is the beautiful and voluptuous Jerri Falls (Carrie Anne Moss) mother to previously mentioned delinquent Crystal who can't seem to come to terms with her lack of a man or her age. And finally the belle du jour of all great actresses, Glenn Close (playing Carrie Johnson) who is simple perfection as the blonde, bubbly, repressed and grieving mother of Troy. In a beautiful exchange at Troy's memorial she looks at Dean and tells him it is her fault, that she didn't even know her own son. In return he tells her about Troy and everything that he was. This struck a chord in my already broken heart. It is the same story for millions of teenagers all over this country whose parents will NEVER know them and aren't sure they want to. And how tormenting and confusing to the child who never asked to be here in the first place.
Eventually in "Chumscrubber" all of the organized chaos comes to a tumultuous climax as everyone's worlds begin to take on a third dimension and the hard, cold reality of life stomps impatiently at their doors.
Ironically I also had the pleasure of watching "Heathers" again (now that's my generation!). For a movie that was made in 1989 it holds up incredibly well and touches on all of the above mentioned subject matter.
Case in point, time will continue to wage its war with or without us but the issues regardless of the century or decade for that matter are the same.
