The Wackness
Friendship, love, and coming of age in New York City, summer of 1994. Luke Shapiro has just graduated from high school, sells marijuana, and trades pot for therapy from a psychologist, Dr. Jeffrey Squires. Luke is attracted to a classmate, Stephanie, who is out of his league and step-daughter of Squires . By July, he is hanging out with Stephanie, taking her on his rounds selling pot out of an ice-cream pushcart. Then things take a turn. In the background, Squires and his wife as well as Lukes parents are having their troubles.
5 March 1959, New York City, New York, USA
22 February 1962, Queens, New York, USA
15 April 1976, White Plains, New York, USA
10 November 1986, New York City, New York, USA
10 April 1978, New York City, New York, USA
1 April 1965, Washington, District of Columbia, USA
22 September 1953, Brooklyn, New York, USA
February 25, 1980 in Hollywood, Florida, USA
1 April 1971, Richmond [now Staten Island], New York City, New York, USA
28 November 1954, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA
31 December 1943, Scarborough, Yorkshire, England, UK
5 November 1964, Amstelveen, Noord-Holland, Netherlands
12 May 1979, New Jersey, USA
15 July 1931, Chicago, Illinois, USA
August 26, 2009
It's an utterly routine picture, but its low-key mood and acting disarm
August 01, 2008
That first sight of Ben Kingsley sucking down a bowl will burn into your memory. You may be watching The Wackness but it's hard to forget that this is Gandhi putting Bic to bong in Jonathan Levine's silly, sappy and sympathetic coming-of-age memoir.
July 24, 2008
The characters are sympathetically drawn and the modest wisdom rings true.
July 30, 2009
With a game cast and cool songs from the era... heartfelt moments battling clumsy ones, The Wackness isn't quite dope but, like a good mixtape it is full of highlights.
August 15, 2011
An exercise in style and wit, two commodities that never go out of fashion.
August 29, 2008
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.
July 25, 2008
The Wackness marks a step up in ambition, but it is also self-indulgent and needlessly complicated for what it ultimately delivers: a somber John Hughes picture scored to A Tribe Called Quest and Mary J. Blige.
May 31, 2011
Josh Peck and Ben Kingsley make for an oddly engaging couple in Jonathan Levine's audacious comedy about sex, drugs, and unexpected friendships.
December 03, 2008
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.
July 25, 2008
The Wackness, for all its eccentricities and emotional pain, is really a sweet little film.
January 19, 2009
Dumb title? Certainly. Perfectly proportioned? Nope. True-to-life? Certainly not. An enjoyably quirky indie comedy? You bet.
July 25, 2008
On the downside: There is a wackness to The Wackness, a saggy psychic undertow that drags down its lighter and smarter aspects.
