THE WACKNESS
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2008 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): **
Let's be honest. Once you've seen that THE WACKNESS, written and directed
by Jonathan Levine, has an eclectic cast that includes both Ben Kingsley
and
Mary-Kate Olsen, you will undoubtedly be very apprehensive. Don't be.
Well, at least not for that reason. The movie has its share of problems,
but the casting is not chief among them.
A pretentious art house flick, the movie tries way too hard to be hip.
And,
with its poorly lit, sepia toned cinematography, it is painfully chic.
But,
if you're in the mood for a depressing drug movie about teenage angst, THE
WACKNESS does fit the bill.
Ben Kingsley plays a low-life psychiatrist named Dr. Squires. Perpetually
stoned, he is seen mainly di****ng out cheap advice to Luke Shapiro (Josh
Peck, Josh in Nickelodeon's "Drake & Josh"). Luke, a high school senior
and
big-time drug dealer, pays his medical bills with drugs, which the doctor
uses while dispensing his "wisdom."
"Sometimes, it's the right time to do the wrong things, and right now is
one
of those times," Dr. Squires tells Luke, who has a lot of problems in his
life. His parents are going bankrupt and are about to be evicted, so they
fight a lot.
A virgin, Luke has his eyes on Stephanie (Olivia Thirlby), the hot girl in
his school. She has had *** hundreds of time before, or so she says,
which
is probably true. She suffers from having an even more dysfunctional
family
than Luke's. Her mother is a terminally unhappy woman (Famke Janssen),
and
her stepfather is the aforementioned Dr. Squires. The only time the good
doctor and his wife ever show a brief spark of joy is when they decide
that
divorce would suit them best.
Most of the movie has Luke selling his drugs from an ice cream cart in the
parks and streets of New York City. A main subplot has the doctor trying
to
find someone to have *** with Luke. Another one concerns the
ever-maligned
but never seen Giuliani. He is the story's bad guy because he is trying
to
destroy the thriving drug trade in New York, where the film is set in
1994.
The only part of the picture that works is the romance between Luke and
Stephanie, with the movie's best and most honest moment coming in a scene
when they break up. Peck and Thirlby both give good performances in what
are both one-note characters. I could, however, do without Peck's
propensity
to whisper every one of his lines.
In a telling line, Stephanie tells Luke, "It doesn't matter." I felt that
about almost the entire movie, which left me just shrugging my shoulders.
I
didn't care because, indeed, it didn't matter.
THE WACKNESS runs 1:35. It is rated R for "pervasive drug use, language
and
some ***uality" and would be acceptable for older teenagers.
The film opens in limited release in the United States on Friday, July 4,
2008.
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