Movie Review

The Wackness

“The Wackness” goes back to a time in New York that you wouldn’t exactly call its golden age. Before 1994 you couldn’t walk down the street without seeing drug dealers, prostitution, and various other forms of illegal activities. Graffiti was everywhere. Time Square was not known for Broadway theater but rather porno theater. The squeegee homeless guys were out in full force ready to make a buck off your car whether you wanted them to or not. Some of this I remember (who could forget the squeegee guys) but most of it I’ve heard through stories over the years. It’s an interesting topic and if you throw in Method Man, Famke Janssen, Ben Kingsley and Mary-Kate Olsen, plus a steamy make-out session between the last two actors, and I’m all over this movie.

The film is set during the summer of 1994 when newly inaugurated Mayor Rudy Giuliani has vowed to clean up the city but in the meantime, Luke Shapiro (Josh Peck) is getting by the best he can. It’s his last summer before college and he’s spending it selling weed around the city and even trading it to his shrink, Dr. Squires (Ben Kingsley), to get free psychoanalysis. Luke is known as a burnout and an unpopular, the only reason people know him is because they buy their drugs off him. Squires is trapped in a loveless marriage and takes a wide assortment of medication just to get through a day. During this summer the two begin a friendship and Luke crushes on Squires’ Step-daughter Stephanie (Olivia Thirlby). Lessons are learned.

Writer/ director Jonathan Levine's flick relies a lot on the familiar, but he gets a lot of mileage out of it. “The Wackness” proves to be a much better movie than I anticipated, primarily taking a coming of age story and combining it with a dealing with age story and basically equaling out to a pretty compelling movie about a friendship between a scared and lonely kid coming into his own and an older man whose best years have passed him by. The movie talks and makes jokes about sex and masturbation, some of which are laugh-out-loud funny, but there is also a lot of heart in this relationship, whether it being Squires imparting his wisdom to Luke or Luke giving Squires a connection to his own youth again.

Levine has also created a free-spirited, nostalgic look at an early 90’s New York. The drugs and graffiti are catalysts for self-expression. A young flower child (played by Mary Kate Olsen) dances in the park to bongo drums, people write their names down on public property as signs to their own mortality. He makes the point that Giuliani’s election and plan to clean up the city has turned New York into an edgeless candy-land and that a quick fix approach for the city is all wrong. Of course that’s sort of an exaggerated statement but I liked the correlation Levine makes between Giuliani’s quick fix New York and Luke and Squires’ ongoing struggle with life’s hardships. I also loved the trip down nostalgia lane - the high-top pumps, Nintendo, 90210, and soundtrack filled with old school hip-hop artists like Biggie and LL really brought me back to the 90’s for a while.

Peck and Kingsley are also fantastic in their roles and they both make the movie. Peck gives Luke a stoned drawl but also finds the innocence and naïve thinking to make him a vulnerable and identifiable character. And Kingsley is at his quirky best as a man so starved for more life that it’s actually making him go a little loopy. The rest of the cast is basically there for cameo appearances but they fulfill a need in other ways. Thirlby, Janssen, and Mary Kate Olsen each come across as little more than sexy props, but they help to prove just how female-challenged Luke and Squires’ really are. And Method Man has two scenes as a drug dealer but nothing too memorable. “The Wackness” is about two guys and the city though, and Peck, Kingsley, and Levine each do a really excellent job of making that into a funny and compelling movie.

Craig's Grade: B+

A	10.9%
B	41.8%
C	31.8%
D	15.3%
F	0.3%