REVIEW: The Wackness

STARRING: Ben Kingsley, Josh Peck View Trailer RELEASE DATE: 07/03/2008 (some cities) DATE SCREENED: 06/25/2008 The Verdict GOOD - See it in the theater

The Wackness is set against the backdrop of 1994 New York City. Rap music was dominating the airwaves, and Biggie Smalls was a new artist. Rudy Gullaiani has just begun his first term as Mayor, with a tough anti-crime stance that included crackdowns on relatively minor offenses such as graffiti, turnstile jumping, and aggressive "squeegeemen".

The story centers around a troubled teenager named Luke (Josh Peck), who has just graduated from high school. Luke is a quiet small time weed dealer, who loves rap music and brazenly sells weed from an ice cream cart in Central Park. He describes himself in the film as "most popular of the unpopular". One of his clients is the step father of a classmate, psychiatrist Dr. Jeffrey Squires (Ben Kingsley). Dr. Squires trades therapy time for the weed. Eventually, Luke begins to open up about his inability to find a girlfriend and his troubles at home. His parents are constantly arguing and having money problems. Luke is feeling the pressure to be the breadwinner in the family, and is depressed that he has never had a girlfriend. Dr. Squires encourages Luke to go out more and find a woman, but what he doesn’t know is that Luke has a huge crush on his step daughter Stephanie (Olivia Thirlby). It turns out that Dr. Squires is unhappy in his marriage, so he begins to spend time hanging out with Luke. In one of the film’s funnier moments, they end up in a bar, where Dr. Squires has a make-out session with a young pot-head played by Mary-Kate Olsen. Hanging out with Dr. Squires helps Luke make his move on Stephanie. Of course, the Dr. is not happy with this when he finds out. Luke and Dr. Squires do get past that issue and explore New York, selling weed together, and trying to help each other deal with their depression.

The Wackness is both a comedy and a drama. Seeing Ben Kingsley get high smoking on a bong is certainly funny. At the same time, it deals with issues of family, relationships, drug addiction and depression. I was completely drawn into the story. We get interesting relationships between all the characters. There is the romance between Luke & Stephanie, the strange friendship between Luke & Dr. Squires, and the bad marriage between Dr. Squires and his wife (Famke Janssen). It may sound corny that Luke & the Dr. can become friends and help each other while dealing weed, but it’s funny and actually seems to make sense in the context of the film. Josh Peck gives the best performance as Luke, but we get good performances from everyone involved, even Method Man as Luke’s drug supplier. This is a small independent movie that I hope will find an audience. See this in the theater, assuming you can find it.