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Movies / Upcoming / The Wackness
The Wackness

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The Wackness (2008)

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68 %
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Reviews Counted: 121

Fresh: 82

Rotten:39

Average Rating: 6.3/10

Consensus: Sympathetic characters and a clever script help The Wackness overcome a familiar plot to make for a charming coming-of-age comedy.

Rated: 15 [See Full Rating] for pervasive drug use, language and some sexuality.

Runtime: 1 hr 35 mins

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:29-08-2008

Synopsis: It’s the summer of 1994, and the streets of New York are pulsing with hip hop and wafting with the sweet aroma of marijuana. The newly-inaugurated mayor, Rudolph Giuliani, is only beginning to... It’s the summer of 1994, and the streets of New York are pulsing with hip hop and wafting with the sweet aroma of marijuana. The newly-inaugurated mayor, Rudolph Giuliani, is only beginning to implement his anti-fun initiatives against “crimes” like noisy portable radio, graffiti and public drunkenness.

Two people, however, are missing out on the excitement: Luke (Josh Peck) is a socially uncomfortable teenage pot dealer with no friends, issues with his parents, and a colossal lack of confidence with girls. He trades weed for sessions with his therapist, Dr. Squires (Sir Ben Kingsley), whose much-younger wife (Famke Janssen) is slipping away from him. Squires, a drug-addled shrink with a hairline retreating to the back of his neck and a state of mind slouching back to adolescence, is an unlikely role model—but the two of them forge a friendship based on a mutual need: getting laid.

The intergenerational duo set off on a crawl that takes them all over New York, where they encounter several of Luke's "business associates,” including a Phish-following dreadlocked pixie (Mary Kate Olsen), a New Wave, keyboard-playing one-hit-wonder (Jane Adams), and Luke’s supplier (Method Man).

Luke has long had an aching crush on Dr. Squires' way-out-of-his league stepdaughter, Stephanie (Olivia Thirlby from Juno), and is stunned at his good luck when she returns his affections. Luke’s innocent first love experience with Stephanie becomes a life lesson that sets him on the pathway towards adulthood. And when Squires breaks down, it is up to the younger man to throw the older one a lifeline.

Propelled by an exuberant hip hop score, The Wackness captures the spell of 1994--a time of pagers, not cell phones; a time when Tupac and Biggie were alive but Kurt Cobain had just died. Funny and moving, The Wackness is an offbeat tale of two lost souls stumbling towards maturity. --© Sony Pictures Classics
[More]

Starring: Ben Kingsley, Famke Janssen, Josh Peck, Olivia Thirlby

Starring: Ben Kingsley, Famke Janssen, Josh Peck, Olivia Thirlby, Mary-Kate Olsen, Method Man, Jane Adams

Director: Jonathan Levine

Director: Jonathan Levine
Screenwriter: Jonathan Levine
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics

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1 - 4 of 9

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Reviews for The Wackness

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 >> >|
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The Wackness, while no masterpiece, is the kind of film that doesn’t come to much but is watchable as it saunters along with a provoking sense of meaningful pessimism. The performances are really the thing — Levine hasn’t managed anything better.

Full Review Source: This is London | comment Comment
08/29/08
Derek Malcolm
This is London

The film's forlorn charm is a little reminiscent of Cameron Crowe's adolescent memoir Almost Famous. It's a tiny bit soppy, too, but you can forgive that in a teenager.

Full Review Source: Independent | comment Comment
08/29/08
Anthony Quinn
Independent

The Wackness is a teen drama, set in 1994 against a backdrop of laidback hip-hop and a roasting hot New York which tries just a bit too hard to be cool. But it is definitely not wack (bad).

Full Review Source: Sun Online | comment Comment
08/29/08
Sun Online

Kingsley is likewise on form and hits home with some terrifically world-weary one liners, while director Jon Levine brings a refreshing inventiveness to the film.

Full Review Source: Daily Mirror [UK] | comment Comment
08/29/08
David Edwards
Daily Mirror [UK]

It's a reasonably promising debut, though, and Sir Ben looks as though he had a lot of fun, not least when he's deflowering Mary-Kate Olsen, surprisingly funny as the planet's last remaining hippy.

Full Review Source: Daily Mail [UK] | comment Comment
08/29/08
Christopher Tookey
Daily Mail [UK]

It’s not quite da bomb, but this nostalgic throwback to the recent past still has enough phat acting (especially from Sir Ben) and slammin’ scenes to seem both fly and fresh. Worth catching? Damn skippy.

Full Review Source: Total Film | comment Comment
08/29/08
Neil Smith
Total Film

The Wackness offers more than fuzzy giggles and bongwater-weak characters.

Full Review Source: Sky Movies | comment Comment
08/29/08
Rob Daniel
Sky Movies

Levine's film is often showy, clumsy, over-earnest. But then so are its characters. So is late adolescence. The Wackness carries out the advice Squires gives to Luke - make a mess, embrace pain. In doing so, it ends up anything but wack.

Full Review Source: Daily Telegraph | comment Comment
08/29/08
Sukhdev Sandhu
Daily Telegraph
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Its writer-director, Jonathan Levine, lavishes the movie with inky black shadows and soft gauzy close-ups, making it mostly feel like a dream, or a half-conjured memory.

Full Review Source: Times [UK] | comment Comment
08/29/08
Kevin Maher
Times [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

An amiable but essentially empty film made enjoyable by a decent soundtrack, funny dialogue and Ben Kingsley's mad doctor.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
08/29/08
Steve Watson
Channel 4 Film
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Kingsley’s shamelessly zingy performance adds welcome pep, and a delicate, achingly sincere summertime idyll on Fire Island offers notice of Levine’s evident promise.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
08/29/08
Trevor Johnston
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

An unlikely buddy comedy that comes to life whenever Kingsley appears - he doesn’t so much steal the show as roll it into a fat blunt and smoke it.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
08/29/08
Nick De Semlyen
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

By Doug Cooper - It's a quirky, offbeat affair, meandering at times but honest and amusing too.

Full Review Source: Teletext | comment Comment
08/28/08
Victor Olliver
Teletext

The cast is so good that the script's contrivances aren't really a problem

Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall | comment Comment
07/02/08
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

Dumb title? Certainly. Perfectly proportioned? Nope. True-to-life? Certainly not. An enjoyably quirky indie comedy? You bet.

Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | comment Comment
01/19/09
Brian Webster
Apollo Guide

Parallel yet intertwined older and younger generations, and a real girl, set this above the usual young dudes genre, changing from comic to romantic to poignant and back.

Full Review Source: Film-Forward.com | comment Comment
12/03/08
Nora Lee Mandel
Film-Forward.com

If nothing else, it's probably worth seeing for the kissing scene between Kingsley and Mary-Kate Olsen.

Full Review Source: The Australian | comment 1 Comment
11/19/08
David Stratton
The Australian

It's an old theme. Levine tackles it with gusto and verve, and if ultimately he overdoes it with a hi-end quirky style, I think there's enough authenticity here to see the film through.

Full Review Source: MovieTime, ABC Radio National | comment Comment
11/14/08
Jason Di Rosso
MovieTime, ABC Radio National

This is a gently humorous and beautifully moving film.

Full Review Source: FILMINK (Australia) | comment Comment
11/14/08
Annette Basile
FILMINK (Australia)

Levine's extended use of sepia-toned cinematography adds to the film's charmless look, matching the bleakness of the lives of most of the people he presents to the audience.

Full Review Source: Daily Telegraph (Australia) | comment Comment
11/14/08
Des Partridge
Daily Telegraph (Australia)
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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Latest News for The Wackness

March 31, 2009: Fox Atomic Hires Jonathan Levine for The Sitter Opens in new window
Jonathan Levine will follow up "The Wackness" with a Fox Atomic project titled "The Sitter," about a college student who "gets talked into babysitting the eccentric kids next... More...

January 21, 2009: Razzies Name 2008's Worst Movie Nominees
No awards season would be complete without the Golden Raspberry Awards (AKA The Razzies), awarded each year to the very worst movies to hit Hollywood. This year's winners will... More...

January 08, 2009: Surviving Guiliani Time wacked out on weirdness in an alternate universe, and with a chaser of cup runneth over raging hormones, in possibly the most explosively imaginative, edgy, brash and strangely poetic coming-of-age tale this year. Opens in new window
More...

January 03, 2009: Surviving Guiliani Time wacked out on weirdness in an alternate universe, and with a chaser of cup runneth over raging hormones, in possibly the most explosively imaginative, edgy, brash and strangely poetic coming-of-age tale this year. Opens in new window
More...

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