The Wackness
United States
2008
99 Min
Color
2.40:1
English
Synopsis
NYC, hot summer 1994. The graduate Luke swaps pot for therapy. A friendship grows with his shrink. A mid-life crisis meets a coming of age to hip-hop beats.
Pot dealing kid Luke Shapiro is trying to figure out how to solve his parents’ insolvency, beat depression, and get laid before pushing off to college.
Luckily he’s got a deal with a psychiatrist, Dr Squires, who trades therapy sessions for grass. It happens that the doctor’s marriage is crumbling, so the two – one in late adolescence, the other in late middle age – embark on a passage into new life stages. As Luke falls for a classmate who just happens to be Squires’s daughter, the summer heats up, he follows the doctor’s orders, learning to coexist with pain and make it part of himself, rather than let it become his downfall.
Director
Jonathan Levine
Jonathan A. Levine (born 18 June 1976 in New York City) is an American film director and screenwriter. Levine won the Audience Award at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival for his film The Wackness. In January 2010, it was announced that he will direct a project entitled Warm Bodies. It is based on a novel with the same name from writer Isaac Marion. Levine was also director Paul Schrader’s assistant for a time before his own directorial career took off. —Wikipedia
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© <',))( Astro-Tofupraxographer
23Mar12
Thanks, but I don't need to constantly be reminded that it's 1994 every 3 minutes. And as someone who only discovers cool music much later after it came out, it's hard to believe that someone could be that hyperaware of the good shit, especially before the internets. "I spit on your grave then I grab my Charles Dickens". Olivia, on the other hand, I wish I could eat the soul off of your lost faded lips... <',))(
Tisa
24Sep11
The extreme ends of the spectrum; the irony. The troubles of being both young and old. The difference between the calmness of the sea and the madness of the city. And everything that bridges these together. The Wackness has definitely covered it all, and with good (but quite dark) cinematography. I definitely loved Ben Kingsley here, and I'm so glad to see that Josh Peck sure can act.
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By Hideous Bitch Princess on November 24, 2009
Sundance is a spotlight for a certain type of film, a type of film which some disregard. The winners seem to inevitably get brushed under the rug, and “The Wackness” is no exception. It seemed to be… read review
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By Schaumburg on September 15, 2009
Just be sure: It’ no masterpiece, not even close… but it is a damn entertaining film with a really good mood in it. It somehow got me.
I think the honesty that is depicted in this movie really… read review
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