Movie Review: The Wackness

Studio: Sony Release date: July 3, 2008 Cast: Sir Ben Kingsley, Josh Peck, Olivia Thirlby, Mary-Kate Olsen, Method Man, Aaron Yoo   Remember the days of 60-minute cassette tapes, young summer love and radio DJs that actually spun records like Biz Markie’s infamous “Just a Friend” or Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Princes’ “Summertime?”   The Wackness will make you go back; back in time to 1994, New York City and teenage problems that seemed like weights of the world.   The plot surrounds seemingly unimportant white people in an overpopulated urban city, its’ the “summer that changed my life” genre that we, both young and old, can relate to.   The Wackness stars Josh Peck, most famous for the Nickelodeon series Drake and Josh, as recent high school graduate Luke Shapiro.   He’s the local weed man on his Upper East Side block and to most of his classmates. Although he’s sold to them for most of their high school years, he’s never really made a connection with anyone, and he feels left out and depressed.   While making a chronic run, he realizes that a graduation party is ensuing that he was never invited.  He’s got no friends, no girl to call his own, dysfunctional parents constantly at each other’s throats – and his days are spent daydreaming about unattainable girls and classic ‘90s Hip-Hop.   Everything changes this particular summer, when he forms an unfamiliar bond with his just as depressed physiatrist, Dr. Jeffrey Squires, portrayed by Ben Kingsley. The doctor is also an outcast and druggie, who ultimately exchanges weed for therapy.  During these therapy/smoke out sessions, Luke and Dr. Squires start to open up, revealing some of the most pivotal dialogues and riveting discoveries of a pre-millennium teenager and seasoned quack.   The Wackness is skillfully written and amateur directed by independent filmmaker Jonathan Levine, who came away with the coveted Audience Favorite award at this year’s prestigious Sundance film festival. What Levine lacks in direction, he more than makes up for in character development and creating the 1994 scenario at the height of New York Hip Hop, when Tribe Called Quest and Notorious B.I.G. reigned supreme.   Levine allows the audience to reminisce over a time when opposite sex crushes were priority and parents just didn’t understand. Of course, in the midst of Luke’s awakenings, he falls for the alluring Stephanie (Olivia Thirlby) who just happens to be Dr. Squires’ step-daughter. Meanwhile, Dr. Squires unwittingly encourages Luke to go after his dream girl and by all means, get laid.   For most of the movie, Dr. Squires dispenses questionable advice, and is smoked out more than an earlier Snoop Dogg video. Ben Kingsley’s performance allows you to connect to this middle-aged man yearning for his youth. Both he and Luke have more in common than either realizes – being girl crazy, depressed about how life has unfolded and addicted to the cannabis. It’s the journey of discovery that finds these two unpolished men freakishly attached to one another, if only for one summer.   Method Man and Mary Kate Olsen make small yet memorable impressions in the movie, as Luke’s Rastafarian ganja supplier and a strung out Manhattan hippie respectively. Still, Luke and Dr. Squires are by far the stand-out characters in The Wackness.   This film will probably fall under the radar against the superhero blockbusters, but it’s worth the effort to seek out a smaller theatre to find. It’s clever, witty and most importantly, a breath of fresh air. The plot is simple – love, sex and weed make for the best summers. For an independent film, The Wackness stands above the rest.   There is plenty of nostalgia in the film to make a child of the ‘90s connect to each line, but we can’t expect every generation to get the point. Thankfully, there are a lot of people who love the era, all of whom should peep this movie.