Photo By Steve Ramos

Mike Mills' feature filmmaking debut, the well received Thumbsucker, is just one facet in his creative arsenal.

The vast body of work by renaissance artist Mike Mills can be had via Japanese DVDs featuring his short films, books containing graphic artwork for clothing labels X-Girl and Marc Jacobs and poster art for bands Air and The Beastie Boys. His Volkswagen and Levis ads appear on TV regularly. And then there's his feature film debut, Thumbsucker, currently playing in theaters nationwide after earning acclaim at major festivals throughout the year.

The secret art Mills won't show despite describing it in great deal is the impromptu home movies he shot with Thumbsucker's lead actress Tilda Swinton in their Toronto hotel rooms on the eve of the film's public screenings.

"They're kind of like horror movies," Mills says with a smile at the recent Toronto Film Festival. "We're going to make some more movies tonight. Tilda is my mentor. She's taught me all about the press and interviews."

Asked what press tips Swinton gave him, Mills laughs softly. Some secrets are best left unsaid.

Of course, Mills has little to worry about when it comes to facing journalists. Response to Thumbsucker has been overwhelmingly positive since its debut at Sundance in January.

Twenty-year-old actor Lou Pucci, who is in almost every scene of the film as awkward teen Justin Cobb, won a Special Sundance Jury Prize for acting. Mills still remembers the joke he played on his young star.

"I knew Lou was going to win something beforehand," he says. "So I kept teasing him throughout the closing-night awards ceremony that he needed to have an acceptance speech ready. Lou kept getting mad, and finally when his name was called he didn't have anything to say except this: 'That sick Mike Mills -- he made me make a movie. I have nothing to say except thank God. That's awesome. OK. Bye.' "

You expect a slick film from a graphic artist and music video director like Mills. What's unexpected -- what you possibly could not have guessed from his beautiful graphic art or music videos -- is how funny and honest Thumbsucker is in its depiction of teen life.

Justin's adventure begins when he confronts his thumb-sucking fixation through Ritalin. His father, Mike (Vincent D'Onofrio), remains detached from his son's ordeals. Meanwhile his mother, Audrey (Tilda Swinton), grows obsessed with a TV actor (Benjamin Bratt). The drugs give Justin newfound confidence -- something that's immediately clear to his debate team coach (Vince Vaughn) and high school crush (Kelli Garner) -- yet what Justin wants out of life still remains outside his grasp.

The Thumsucker crew, who split up to occupy various tables placed throughout a small conference room of a Toronto hotel, is a fascinating team. Keanu Reeves, who plays Justin's doctor, is the famous face, and he chooses to sit quietly alongside Mills. The enthusiastic, shaggy-haired Pucci has enough opinions for everyone. Garner is the pretty blonde starlet who looks to climb the career ladder. Swinton is the seasoned pro, a veteran British actress who watches the hubbub with cool detachment.

Swinton, who turns 45 next month, became famous for her role as the death-defying man/woman in Sally Potter's Orlando and the films of British avant-gardist Derek Jarman, who first cast her in Caravaggio. She compares Mills to her dear friend Jarman, the highest compliment she can give a director, and boosts Mills further by tagging him a "renaissance man."

One of several young filmmakers who have jumped from distinctive music-video work to accomplished feature-length efforts, Mills belongs to a talented crowd that includes Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry as well as his Directors Bureau colleagues, the siblings Sofia and Roman Coppola.

Mills is more than happy to discuss his process, but he's quick to correct any assumptions that he's a golden boy whose success has come easy. He points out that he's been working on the film adaptation of Walter Kirn's novel for years, struggling to get financing to make the movie and to convince people that he's capable of telling a complete story.

Mills is West Coast sunny with powder blue eyes and sandy blonde hair that's receded back from his broad forehead. Light facial stubble matches his hair and his soft voice. He holds gadgets -- PDAs and palm-sized digital cameras -- while he talks.

He's a Santa Monica native and skateboard fanatic who left California to attend Cooper Union and Hunter College in New York City. The East Village is where he paid his dues doing freelance design work and directing music videos for free for any band that would give him the chance.

Once his career took off, Mills returned to Los Angeles, spending as much time behind the camera as he could. His fine short film, The Architecture of Reassurance, played Sundance in 2000.

Thumbsucker is lighting striking twice as far as Mills and Sundance are concerned. It's the leading independent film festival in the world, and it's an appropriate place for Mills. He might look like a poster boy for hip success with a stylish gray suit and white dress shirt and maroon tie, but he fought to get to this place.

The struggle to make Thumbsucker, to convince people that audiences would want to see this story, occupies Mills' thoughts. Coming-of-age stories are nothing new, but he makes Justin's struggles with medication addiction rich, surprising and unforgettable.

His storytelling, not unlike his visual artistry, is what sets Thumbsucker apart from other independent coming-of-age tales like The Chumscrubber, Pretty Persuasion and Dear Wendy.

"To say it is about a boy who cannot stop sucking his thumb is to lose the importance of the film," Mills points out. "I've always believed that this is a story many can relate to. Justin is distinct, but he's also universal in what he's dealing with as a teenager."

Mills came to Thumbsucker as a graphic artist trying his hand at filmmaking. His debut film behind him, plans for his sophomore feature are already underway. He finally has the balance in his artistic repertoire that he always wanted.

Of course, Mills insists he always wanted to be a pro skater, so some struggles remain. No one, not even a renaissance man like Mills, can have it all.©