Edinburgh - Day Three

After several sombre and serious screenings, TO finally cracks a smile at 'Thumbsucker' and 'The Aristocrats'.

Aug 23 2005

Following trips to Iraq and zombie hell yesterday, Time Out was hoping for something a little lighter in tone today, and mercifully, Edinburgh doesn't disappoint.

Our first port of call is a screening of music video director Mike Mill's feature debut 'Thumbsucker'.

A favourite at Sundance earlier in the year, the film follows the trials and tribulations of angst-ridden teen Justin Cobb (a marvellous Lou Taylor Pucci).

Unable to communicate with anyone in his life, Justin receives questionable spiritual advice from his orthodontist (a scene-stealing Keanu Reeves) and spends his days walking around in a confused, thumb-sucking daze.

Teacher Vince Vaughn then suggests a course of wonder-drug Ritalin to perk the youngster up, and in no time at all, his life is transformed, though the changes he undergoes aren't necessarily for the better.

An offbeat comedy that's sure to put a smile on your face, it deserves to be a cult hit when released later in the year, and marks director and star as ones to watch in the future.

Fittingly, TO's next screening is the Mirrorball Global Selection, where music videos from around the world are screened and where the 'Thumbsucker' director initially found a platform for his work several years ago.

Featuring a faultless selection of brilliant videos, highlights include an amusing story of cube discrimination, a deceptively clever eastern odyssey called 'Sentimental Journey' and a typically strange collaboration between Spike Jonze and Björk in which the latter ends up locking lips with a cat.

Having been shocked and stunned at that strange sight, the entertainment then becomes yet more cruel and unusual with a screening of the outrageous documentary 'The Aristocrats'.

A comedy that this site has been championing since we first got a whiff of it earlier in the year, the film is every bit as politically incorrect as we'd been led to believe, and has many members of the raucous Scottish audience rolling in the aisles.

For those not in the know, the film examines many different versions of one particular dirty joke, and features the likes of Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, Eddie Izzard, Chris Rock, Billy Connolly and the like telling it in increasingly unpleasant, yet hilarious, ways.

Best of all though are the more unusual takes on the gag, from a juggling version to a rendition involving a pack of cards to a truly ingenious mime.

By the end of the film, the various twisted tales of incest, excrement and bestiality made us feel like we needed a wash, but it remains, without doubt, the funniest feature of the fest. And any documentary that ends with the words: 'No animals were fucked during the making of this film' has got to be worth a watch.

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