The Wackness is a mix tape of clichés, with writer-director Jonathan Levine taking cuts from a dozen or more "life-affirming" coming-of-age melodramas and setting them to the backbeat of NYC '94. The movie begins by ballyhooing its "edge": The Sony Classics logo gets tagged over; teenage hip-hop head Luke (Josh Peck) is introduced stonewalling his psychiatrist, Dr. Squires (Ben Kingsley)—then, before the session wraps, the patient pays his shrink off in . . . kind bud! Ohhhhhhhh, schnaps (insert DJ scratching noise)—this ain't ya parents' Ordinary People, son! Dealer Luke's first summer post–high school finds him socially stalled by weed paranoia, wondering if his lingering virginity will be permanent. As his old man is the most castrated patriarch since Jim Backus strapped on an apron, midlife satyr Doc S. becomes the substitute father figure, paraphrasing Harold and Maude platitudes about LIFE! in a wobbly accent. This, combined with notably fugly cinematography, should equate to so much Sundance offal, but Peck keeps the production shy of execrable. He's real like nothing else here: a big, pear-shaped UES Jewish kid unsuccessfully masking his insecurities—he keeps his shirt on when swimming and screwing— with street posturing and headphone-clogged self-absorption. All the drug-slinging material's counterfeit, but the script is refreshingly straight-faced in looking at the strange relationship between white boys and rap.
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Virginia Hoffman 08/03/2008 11:58:03 PM
Well, I did read your review even though I will disagree with you. I happen to be one of those people who felt that it was a very good movie. Yes, in many ways it fulfills the "cliche" of being a typical teenage movie with a brooding unpopular character lusting after "that" girl, finding a relationship with his mentor with whom he gains wisdom from, and in the end, he finds love and acceptance while realizing that this was a defining moment in his life. Hughs would be happy to see that his influence has disappeared. However, this movie is highly defined by a great character and more importantly, nostalgia for the 90's golden era. However, the main man of the movie is Ben Kingsley. His performance was stellar as a shrink with bipolar disease, the devastating consequences of self medication, and his eventual destruction of a successful but confining lifestyle. It reminded me of Dean Moriarty or Keroac himself. I was not in love with Peck's character, though I did like that he was an unpopular drug dealer (a twist on the Dazed and Confused cliche). I also thought that the motivations for his actions were logically justified by financial necessity and loneliness, which at least, is better than the perpetually-angsty-without-reason "Garden State". As for Nostalgia, I am ignorant in the realm of movies, but this is the first one that I have seen which targets an era so close to our own yet that is so drastically different. Levine reminds the viewer in every shot, song, and line of the history of '94 and of what we have lost. For an era that was only fourteen years ago, do we not seem incredibly older? And why does everything seem bittersweet? In many ways, the predictable plot mirrors our own knowledge of what is to come: the death of Notorious B.I.G. and Tupak, September 11th, technological advances, anti-fashion, freedom of information act, the internet, global warming, iraq war, economic decline etc... Is it any wonder that the plot follows a boy, growing into a man, who experiences his first true love? '94 is an age of innocence compared to today's society. Levine excels in reminding us that things were not always what they are today. Despite the fact that you know what will happen, it is the way in which it happens that makes it interesting. Yes, this movie does not make the most innovative plot choices but to be cheeky, every story can be boiled down to seven basic plots. And as a product of one of those seven, I appreciated the incorporation of intellectualism and interesting characters.