Dickness is Down with the Wackness
The Wackness takes place in the summer of 1994 in New York City. Maybe it is because I was a similar age to the main character of the film in 1994, but I was pretty much down for whatever this movie had to offer. Initially it seemed strange to think of a period movie set in 1994 because that seems like it was just a few years ago, fifteen if my math is correct, but as I started to reminisce along with the director of the movie I began to realize 1994 was a long time ago.
I was sixteen in the summer of 1994. The main character, Luke Shapiro, played by Josh Peck, was eighteen. He lived in New York City and sold marijuana. I lived in a suburb of a city much smaller than New York and worked at a convenience store and sold beer and cigarettes to people. Still I found it easy to relate to him. I had never seen the actor who played Luke, but I was impressed by his performance. The director did a great job of letting the audience become familiar with the character and so you grew to care about what happened to him.
Many films will try to force emotions out of the audience for characters that were never truly fleshed out. A good example of this is another film that had Luke’s love interest from the film, Olivia Thirlby, in it. Well she was the best friend of Juno, but that is not the movie I am talking about. The movie I am referencing is called Snow Angels. There are things to like about that movie. It had a strong cast other than Thirlby, such as Sam Rockwell and Kate Beckinsale, but there were constant horrific happenings that were designed to elicit strong emotions from the viewer, but since you never really felt too connected to the characters the incidents, which should have packed an emotional wallop, left you feeling cheated by the director. They felt more like stunts than legitimate plot occurrences. The director of Snow Angels was David Gordon Green who is usually a really good director. One of the things, other than Sam Rockwell’s impressive performance, which I took away from seeing Snow Angels, and now the Wackness, is that Juno’s friend is likely to be a bigger star than Juno herself, Ellen Page.
As good as the two younger characters are in the film, the most fun performance comes from Sir Ben Kingsley, who really seems to enjoy playing against type as an aging stoner psychiatrist who befriends Luke his loner teen patient. Kingsley plays Dr. Jeffrey Squires who also happens to be the step father of Stephanie, Thirlby’s character. Despite his own life falling apart, he gives advice to Luke in exchange for weed. Everyone knows Luke, but he does not really have any friends. Dr. Squires befriends him and tries to help him enjoy life more. Stephanie begins to hang out with him mostly due to boredom as everyone else is away for the summer. Luke has difficulty just enjoying the moment and he constantly feels the need to question the nature of his relationship with Stephanie.
As she tells him his problem is he always focuses on the Wackness when he should be focusing on the dopeness instead. She says this to him while they are on the beach and implores him to just look at her and kiss her which he does.
I can imagine if you are cynical how you could also choose to look at the wackness instead of the dopeness when it comes to this film, but really it is almost all dopeness for me. Everything about the movie, especially the soundtrack, was like a time warp. I felt like I was actually back in 1994. The soundtrack is almost all rap because that is what Luke listened to exclusively, but they reference Kurt Cobain’s suicide and Pearl Jam in addition to playing a variety of hip-hop ranging from Tribe Called Quest to early Biggy Smalls. Dr. Squires tells Luke he wishes he was his age again. I don’t know if I would go that far, but if I was I think it would have been beneficial to have a screwed up friend like Dr. Squires to help me out and a girl like Stephanie to fall for despite the wise warnings of the doctor. Sure his life was painful at times, but you have to have the sour in order to enjoy the sweet or better yet the wackness in order to enjoy the dopeness.
Full Disclosure: After writing this post I looked at some of the reviews of this film and found out that Sir Ben Kingsley was nominated for a razzie for worst supporting actor for his role in this film in addition to his roles in War Inc. and the Love Guru. I have not seen those other two films, but I think it is ridiculous to give him a razzie for this role. Sure some of the things his character did were questionable, such as making out with Mary-Kate Olsen which was extremely creepy, but it was a fun role and anyone who did not enjoy it needs to learn to appreciate the utter dopeness of his performance and lighten up a little. Kingsley’s nomination for a razzie for the Wackness is almost as big of a travesty as the Oscar snub for director Christopher Nolan.
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