Movie Description
Palpable heat, complete with sweltering lens flares, washes over the mental and emotional currents of writer-director Jonathan Levine's THE WACKNESS. As the summer months of 1994 pass in three naturally marked acts, the neon pop of a pained youth culture's graffiti art punctuates Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's New York City and its palette of washed-out darks and midtones. This part-familiar, part-engagingly new coming-of-age story suggests the Giuliani administration's "cleaning up" of the city as a metaphorical model of how not to approach the pain of living. The philosophical critique of sweeping the ugly under the rug, seeing it as nothing but a disservice to oneself, comes courtesy of the advice and attempted practice of gonzo-druggie psychiatrist Dr. Squires (Ben Kingsley) and the struggle of his teenage pot-dealing patient, Luke Shapiro (Josh Peck). The only way to live life, says Squires, who accepts marijuana as payments for Luke's therapy sessions, is to embrace it in all its excruciating throes.
THE WACKNESS is an appropriately self-aware dark comedy that separates itself from coming-of-age films set in earlier eras by pointing to its own genre's conventions (through blunt articulation and express devoicing, alternately) as much as it does its themes and sentiments. Peck delivers a layered performance as Luke. The laconic stoner's heavy-lidded, steely stares and draggy attempts to be cool, and his statements that sound like questions at vulnerable moments ("I got this for you, yo," he says shyly in his white-boy hip-hop intonation as he hands a gift to Squires's stepdaughter Stephanie, the girl he's fallen in love with), are belied by a natural intelligence and a growing anxiety. Incidentally, beautiful Manhattan native Olivia Thirlby (JUNO) is perfect as dream girl Stephanie. All this feverish imagery is emotionally enveloped by THE WACKNESS's ‘90s hip-hop soundtrack, which features the Notorious B.I.G. and A Tribe Called Quest.
| Credits | | Producer: | Joe Neurauter, Keith Calder | | Cast: | Famke Janssën, Method Man, Olivia Thirlby |
Editorial Reviews
"Funny and poignant, THE WACKNESS is one of the better coming-of-age films to hit theaters in a while....Real life plays intriguingly in the background of this edgy comedy..."
New York Times - Claudia Puig (07/03/2008)
"[A] studiously offbeat coming-of-age crowd-pleaser....The film is dotted with timely signifiers, but its one truly relevant reference point is that this was the last moment in the culture before cell phones."
Entertainment Weekly - Owen Gleiberman (07/11/2008)
"Ben Kingsley remakes himself almost as comprehensively as he did in SEXY BEAST..."
Sight and Sound - Ryan Gilbey (09/01/2008)
3 stars out of 5 -- "THE WACKNESS is an easy watch, with hazy cinematography evoking the feel of summer and a mellow soundtrack that lovers of '90s hip-hop will go ape over."
Empire - Nick De Semlyen (09/01/2008)
3 stars out of 5 -- "Ben Kingsley's stoned shrink is royally funny and Josh Peck channels Mark Ruffalo's sleepy appeal....The leads peddle their wares with nicely messy conviction."
Total Film - Kevin Harley (04/01/2009)
| See an error? Submit a change request |
All rights reserved.
