The Wackness

I watched this movie because I needed to get my mind off my painful hemorrhoids. Sure enough, I forgot about my roids because I was too busy trying to put my eyeballs back in their sockets after gouging them out with a Big Gulp straw. That's how bad this movie is. I am not kidding. I looked around the theater (after managing to pop my peepers back in) and saw that no less than 64 people were also struggling with their gouged eyeballs. The other 12 had hung themselves with twizzlers. One kid seemed to be enjoying the movie, but he also seemed to be enjoying his booger collection, so maybe the question you must ask yourselves before paying to see this movie is, do you enjoy booger collections? Well, do you?

This movie is nothing more than Jonathan Levine's wet dream. As a native new yorker who lived in this city during this time period, I have a hard time digesting this movie. Let's just be real...first of all, White people were not listening to Hip Hop back in 94. I'm not speaking about those select few, but in masses. The scenes in this movie where White people are at parties and listening to select tracks from the golden age of Hip Hop are PURE fantasy. The problem that I have with this movie is that it is the first movie to discuss a very important time in NYC, and in Hip Hop. So who is the protagonist? A Jewish kid who sells weed. This movie will/has been seen by people around the world and they will digest this film as White people being down and interested in Hip Hop during its critical stages. That is bullshit. During this period of time, so much of the golden age of Hip Hop was under appreciated and only valued by people who were in the Hip Hop circle. Let me speak about the female interest and the bamboo earrings... White people have been doing that for the last few years only. It makes me sick because that style did not originate with them and they are trying to finesse it like it was theirs from jump. I'm not trying to be anti-White, I am trying to be very real with you. The White people who were involved in Hip Hop at this time worked at the labels and they were journalist. Hip Hop has grown and it is global. There is no doubt about that. However, the golden years in New York City were developed and nurtured by Blacks and Puerto Ricans. Enjoy this fantasy movie. It is not a true representation of NYC during those years. The only movie that even comes close, may be Juice, which features Tupac. This movie fits right in with the rest of the fiction fantasy movies of New York City... Batman, Spiderman or even the Watchmen. You will become the Wackness when you start to believe this.

Boring film about people so bored with life that they take drugs (prescribed and not) to alleviate their boredom, and are therefore really boring to watch. If you've ever spent time with potheads and other druggies, you probably know how at first they can sound funny and sometimes insightful, but eventually you realize everything coming out of their drug-hazed brains is ill-formed and tedious and they don't really mean (or remember) much of what they say. This is a film about those kinds of people, who like to complain about f'ing Guiliani but don't have the gumption to do anything about him or anything else because they're stoned most of the time. Ostensibly a coming-of-age story set in NYC in the summer of 1994, there's really nothing going on here except some straining actors trying to breathe life into stereotyped characters. I kinda felt sorry for them (the actors) because they try pretty hard, but you can't get blood from a stone -- or in this case, stoners. Imagine the very funny "Dazed & Confused" if it took itself too seriously, or Cheech & Chong or Harold & Kumar trying to be profound, and you have this movie. Lifeless and -- did I mention this? -- boring.

One day Hollywood will call Jonathan Levine and ask him to direct a big budget film not based on his skills as a screenplay writer but as a director. For a first effort one must be impressed by Levine's skill at directing actors as well as working with the cinematographer. The Wackness has some beautiful visual scenes. But as a writer Levine has churned out but another typical Indie flick that will probably win a lot of awards at the film festivals but won't impress more sophisticated critics. Levine's coming of age tale is set in 1994. He sets the story in that time period in order to pad his soundtrack with various hip hop songs that were coming out at that time. Actually the story could have been set in the present and all the references to that time period seem self-conscious. Levine's characters are flat, bordering on one-dimensional. For the most part, they don't like themselves. The protagonist, Luke Shapiro, is continually seeing his mentor, a psychiatrist played by Ben Kingsley, and admitting that he is unhappy. Kingsley's character, Dr. Squires, is also unhappy, trapped in a loveless marriage. Sad sack characters are good for soap operas but do not make for good drama. Levine should have taken a cue from 'The Sopranos' and modeled his shrink on the very believable and confident 'Dr. Melfi'. Instead, Dr. Squires is a loser who trades therapy sessions for marijuana which Luke provides him with. Even less thought out are the supporting characters such as Luke's father who has managed to get the family evicted due to some unexplained business dealings. Similarly, Dr. Squire's wife spends her time bemoaning her poor relationship with the goofy doctor. That relationship is also never explored. Luke spends a good deal of time walking around the neighborhood pushing an ice cream cart loaded with marijuana. He does get arrested at one point but surprisingly not for selling marijuana (actually it's for making graffiti along with his unstable mentor, Dr. Squires). The main part of the story involves Luke's romance with Stephanie, Squires's step-daughter, convincingly played by Oliva Thirlby. She has the best part in the script, playing a cynical and amoral vixen who beds Luke and then discards him for the next heavier player that comes along. There are no surprises at the end of 'The Wackness'. Luke takes his lumps and heads for college, older but wiser. He manages to also set up Dr. Squires with an acquaintance who the writer hints will be a stabilizing influence on him in the future. Despite all the clichés, Levine is a director who I am certain will go on to take on more challenging projects in the future.

I've seen this film a thousand times before. Yes different actors, different directors, different camera styles but there was nothing new about this coming of age drama. The first film it really reminded me of was Richard Linklater's Slacker however. In both tone and style it seemed to drift in some of the ways Slacker had done but whilst Linklater's film just let itself go The Wackness tries to incorporate some type of gravitas. This is possibly the fault of the studio rather than the director but it is hard to tell (and as it was written by the director...). The real shame in all of this is all the actors are so good. Well chosen and correct for the roles they are handling. Peck and Thirlby stand up as equals to their more experienced counterparts and I will be looking out for both these actors in the future. Direction is also fine and dandy, if a tad slow, and cinematography is excellent too although I had some issues with the use of colour - although I would put that down to personal preference. The love story(s) in the centre of the film seemed too generic and often the film seemed to be trying to pull the laughs out of the audience rather than concentrate on what was happening in the story. Again the film would have been finer without the audience manipulation there and there is one point early in the movie where you question if our protagonist is going to start speaking to the camera. Something I thought would have made the film more exciting but sadly not the case. There is nothing wrong with this film but as previously stated nothing new.

This movie was a lot of fun and thought-provoking. Not for anyone who is sensitive to drug use or sex scenes. Lots of nostalgic references to what was going on in the early-mid 90's, particularly in New York. Ben Kingsley was absolutely hilarious throughout the film. While they list Mary Kate Olson as a cast member, she's really only in two quick scenes and overacts as her "free-spirited" character, rather like a drunk version of her character on Weeds. The movie takes place in New York in the summer of '94 after the lead character Luke Shapiro's high school graduation. He's a virgin who wants to get laid, sells weed out of a vendor cart, befriends his therapist, and falls in love with his therapists step-daughter. Worth the time and money. Two thumbs up.

This film is about a lonely young man befriending an unconventional psychiatrist, while dating his daughter at the same time. "The Wackness" seems desperate to please viewers, as can be seen from the plentiful of hip hop, street culture, sex scenes and drug scenes. However, all these elements fail to save "The Wackness" from being a wreck. The characters are unsympathetic, and even disgusting at times. I cannot imagine a psychiatrist to encourage drugs and crime, which is completely unethical. The plot is not engaging either, as I do not find a collection of random irresponsible behaviour entertaining. Furthermore, lighting is bad throughout the film, most of the time faces are too dark. I was thoroughly bored and disappointed by "The Wackness".

On Saturday, May 3rd, 2008 I was able to attend the west coast premiere of "The Wackness" at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas in San Francisco. I had paid $150 just so me and my two friends could see it and it was money well spent. The movie grabs you from the start and doesn't let up until it ends. set in New York 1994 it is a story about a troubled drug dealer Luke Shapiro(played excellently by Josh Peck) who has struck a deal with his therapist Dr.Squires(Ben Kingsley in one of his best performances in many years) in which he will trade him weed in exchange for sessions. Along the way he falls for Dr.Squires' step-daughter Stephanie(played by the extremely talented Olivia Thirlby). What makes this movie so great is it's focus on the characters. No character is perfect. Each has a set of his or her own flaws. Each character is written well and not just a simple stereotype. Each actor feels like they were meant for the role they were given. Ben Kingsley and Josh Peck create some of the best scenes in movie history. Olivia Thirlby has demonstrated range from JUNO to SNOW ANGELS to this. She took what could have been a one-dimensional character into something magnificent. She is a great actress who I hope to keep on seeing in the future. It also featured a good selection of songs from 1994 that help the flow of this movie. I have not cried at a movie in years. But I cried during this. It is a beautiful coming of age tale that quite a few people can relate to. Johnathan Levine, who directed this masterpiece, has a bright future ahead of him. He is talented and and makes this movie sincere. This movie is a well-written piece of cinematic heaven. I hope it can find it's audience when it is released to theaters. Also I hope they release an extended version or at least the deleted scenes with the DVD as the director told the audience that there was about 40 minutes of cut out from the finished product.

This is one of those shambolic American indie debuts that has its head stuck in the clouds. Its only currency is pointless, insight-free nostalgia and quirky behaviour. Plot devices and character traits that qualify as fundamentally idiotic are too numerous to mention. Ben Kingsley's performance is reasonably enjoyable, but the lead profoundly misunderstands the character that he's playing, and the director is too busy getting shots of Forrest Gump posters or people playing on Game Boys to notice. It isn't wise or deft about anything, and it only comes to life when it draws attention to itself and is at its most pointless. Its also irritating and a little bit stupid. The making-of on the DVD revealed a couple of things; that writer/director Jonathan Levine is an insufferable, airheaded douchebag, and that everyone involved in the making of the film thought that they were making a comedy, which was news to me. Wackness indeed.

The Wackness is an extremely difficult movie to figure out. On one hand, writer/director Jon Levine paints a captivating story around the friendship of two identifiable protagonists in depressed teenage drug dealer Luke Shapiro, played by an up-to-the-task Josh Peck, and eccentric shrink, Dr. Squires, played by a barely up to the task Ben Kingsley. On the other hand, the script itself struggles to find a tone largely fumbling the 1994 NYC setting and ultimately dabbling with dark comedy, philosophy 101, and drug/party filled 90s teenage musings without really nailing down any thematic voice. The movie does succeed in escaping its hazy plot lines and sophomoric personalities with several great one-liners, some decent character development, and a conclusion that left me satisfied but nevertheless a bit sad --which is not a bad thing. Of the 80% filled NYC theater I saw it in, 10 people walked out, the rest applauded at the end. Its that kind of movie. One of the biggest problems with the movie is its failure to use the 1994 New York City setting to its fullest. As a product of this time and place I felt cheated because Mr. Levine chooses to exploit tid-bits of the culture without ever really showing any substance. We hear references to Kurt Cobain and Phish, we see Luke playing Nintendo NES, we hear a good selection of Biggie, Wu-Tang Clan, and Tribe Called Quest and several references to the Guliani gestapo police, but Levine failed to create a teenage period piece to rival Dazed and Confused, Kids, or Mallrats to name a few more recent ones. The cinematography is good, and adds a vintage type feel to the NYC background, but as a cultural snapshot of a time in NYC history, this movie falls flat. However, Levine was perhaps preoccupied with a greater goal than a period piece. Shapiro and Dr. Squires are not easy characters to support. Shapiro is a bulk sales weed dealer, with no friends, and a stunted sex life. I think many people will be able to relate to him either directly or indirectly and will enjoy following his teenage "coming of age" tribulations as I did. Kingsley, as Squires, has a tough role and at times plays the stoner shrink as though he has early onset Alzheimer's disease. Its not an easy role, his character is a walking contradiction who mixes decent psychological advice with occasional moments of idiocy. At times he nails it down, at others he comes across as the drunk uncle at Thanksgiving dinner that we are all a bit embarrassed for, but this was probably Levine's intention. Amidst writing that ebbed and flowed at a mediocre level, the dialog between Shapiro and Squires had some knock outs and worked its way up to a satisfying conclusion. The peripheral characters perform admirably when asked, except for Famke Jannsen who failed to show up for her role as Squires' numb to life wife. If you have ever turned to the recreational consumption of drugs or any other vice as an escape from life or to just 'deal' with life, you will find both Shapiro and Squires much much much more sympathetic and in some ways touching characters. The story of the young Shapiro and old Squires blends the themes of 'soothing your growing pains through drugs (mostly marijuana)' versus the 'trying to go back to your youth and escape your adulthood' through drugs. People who can appreciate or relate to such plot lines will find this movie much more touching than those who cant.