The Wackness

Name: The Wackness
Genre: Drama, Comedy, Romance
Released: July 3, 2008
Duration: 99 min
Rating: 61
Cast: Ben Kingsley, Josh Peck, Olivia Thirlby

2008

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 30 Critics

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 35 Ratings

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7.4

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7.4	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 35 Ratings

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The Wackness

Movie Details & Credits

Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: July 3, 2008

Starring: Ben Kingsley, Josh Peck, Olivia Thirlby

Summary: The Wackness centers on a troubled high school student named Luke Shapiro--a teenage pot dealer who forms a friendship with Dr. Jeffrey Squires, a psychiatrist and kindred lost soul. When the doctor proposes that Luke trade him weed for therapy sessions, the two begin to explore both New York City and their own depression. (Sony Picture Classics)

Director: Jonathan Levine

Genre(s): Drama, Comedy, Romance

Rating: R

Runtime: 99 min

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Critic Reviews

Baltimore Sun - Michael Sragow

A funny, touching mood piece. Read full review

New York Post - Lou Lumenick

Nostalgic for those bad old days, The Wackness was shot at a time when it actually looked like "America's Mayor" was going to be in a position to perform a similar cleanup on the entire country. That, of course, turned out to be a pipe dream.

ReelViews - James Berardinelli

Not everything in The Wackness works and there are times when the divergent serious/comedic tones clash instead of complementing each other. However, in spite of its flaws, the production gets us to care about the characters and their situations.

TV Guide Magazine - Ken Fox

A deeply personal coming-of-age story steeped in heady nostalgia and all the creative myopia that too often comes with it.

Slate - Dana Stevens

The Wackness may not have much that's new to say about being 17--it's a fairly standard coming-of-age drama with a couple of noteworthy performances--but it's a definitive compendium of trivia about 1994 (by Levine's lights, the best year ever).

Empire - Nick De Semlyn

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.

New York Daily News - Joe Neumaier

Occasionally stumbles into charm but more often is just wayward and hazy. It makes you hungry for a real movie from writer-director Jonathan Levine.

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User Reviews

JoelS

Jan 11, 2009

This movie was my life. I love it! Josh did a great role.

2 of 2 users found this helpful

DanC

Mar 13, 2009

This movie is nearly perfect. Quiet, unassuming, and brilliantly true to itself. Outstanding on every level.

1 of 2 users found this helpful

LisaB.

Jul 24, 2008

Josh Peck delivers a stereotype-busting performance in The Wackness. He shows himself to be an actor versus a child star. Ben Kingsley is awesome as usual.

1 of 1 users found this helpful

ChadS.

Jul 28, 2008

The ice cart that Luke Shapiro(Josh Peck) pushes around the borough to facilitate his summer drug operation couldn't be a more conspicuous front. But the ice cart does work as a metaphor for Rudolph Giuliani's gentrification of New York during his seven-year reign as mayor, when The ice cart that Luke Shapiro(Josh Peck) pushes around the borough to facilitate his summer drug operation couldn't be a more conspicuous front. But the ice cart does work as a metaphor for Rudolph Giuliani's gentrification of New York during his seven-year reign as mayor, when the future 9/11 hero and presidential hopeful told all the Central Park hookers and drug dealers to go home like a real-life Travis Bickle. Percy(Method Man) went underground while a new wave of drug pushers ambled through the city undetected. A Tribe Called Quest's "Can U Kick It?", which contains a sample of Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side", sounds primordial, as if the ghost of Martin Scorsese's New York("All the animals come out at night- whores, skunk p******, buggers, queens, dopers, junkies, sick, venal. Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets.") came home to roost and wondered where all the hookers in Central Park went. Even the drug dealers are different. Dr. Squires(Ben Kingsley) remembers a time when "the man"("I'm waiting for...") was a popular dude. "The Wackness", a mid-nineties period piece, is about an unpopular pot dealer in therapy, who's in love the therapist's daughter, a girl that's way out of his league. "The Wackness" is "The Sopranos" meets "Say Anything", on pot. Pete Tosh was right: "Doctors smoke it," too. Stephanie(Olivia Thirlby) sees things in terms of "dopeness" and "wackness". The film's dopeness can be attributed to Joshua Peck's natural performance as a shy kid who hides his emasculation behind the swagger and machismo of rap. Thank god he's not into Morrissey, or else Stephanie would never have f****d him. Luke's relationship with the pothead shrink is schematic and overfamiliar, save for the fact that he's a hilariously bad mentor. But there's wackness, too. The film spends an inordinate amount of time on the doctor's marital problems. Sometimes "The Wackness" forgets who the main character is. It should be about an ordinary person, not "Ordinary People".… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful

JayH.

Dec 28, 2008

The acting is terrific, but it is a rather dreary story. Well written, nicely edited and directed. The characters are well developed. I can't see how on earth this can be classified as a comedy.

0 of 0 users found this helpful

RronnieR.

Jul 23, 2008

6 at best and being generous the kid was quite entertaining but ben kinsgley was a bit overdone in the role, my girlfriend loved it though thought ben was stupendous.

0 of 1 users found this helpful

J.G.

Feb 8, 2009

Vulgar, crude, dark, not funny and unredeeming; overacted, not funny. Did I say not funny? One dimensional characters stuck in a pointless and bad movie. Women are treated stereotypically and poorly. But, the popcorn was good.

0 of 4 users found this helpful

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