Jon Peters Reviews: “The Wackness”

‘The Wackness’ earned a standing ovation at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and it is easy to see why. The film is a winner; it plays to the coming-of-age genre and its conventions perfectly. You’ll laugh and cry in all of the appropriate ways. Now that doesn’t make the film original but sometimes who cares. A well-made film is a well-made film, despite it having a typical approach to youth angst.

There’s a sequence in the later half of the film in which the director uses a fast paced shot across various streets in broad daylight while having the main character’s middle finger being blasted into everyone’s face. It’s clever and interesting. Jonathan Levine once in a while lets our lead, Luke’s (Josh Peck), imagination run wild. Or maybe it’s his feelings. That scene I described comes right after his first girlfriend breaks his heart. It seems loud and rude, but what 17 year old wouldn’t feel that way when a heart gets broken?

Despite the familiarity with this coming-of-age story, I still found a lot of interesting ideas going through it, and not just the visuals. Each character is missing something and they all have a trouble with connecting. Luke cannot connect to his classmates or the beautiful Stephanie. His shrink cannot connect to his wife or the younger generation, no matter how hard he tries and Stephanie seems capable, but gets bored easily. The shrink, played by Ben Kingsley is a great performance, one to almost rid our current memory of Mr. Kingsley in some junk as of late. He’s wacky and perfectly casts that ex-druggie persona. It’s kind of fun seeing Gandhi smoking from the bong.

Another aspect I enjoyed from this film is the use of hip-hop music in the film. Personally, I find most films using rap as a soundtrack to either seem cool or sell a soundtrack, but ‘The Wackness’ uses the music as a backdrop to a change the characters and New York City is facing; Giuliani is ‘cracking down’ on crime and drugs. The film places this within its narrative almost like its Prohibition. While the drugs don’t make the characters connect, it’s a way to the means of connection. But getting back to the music, this is a time when Biggie was breaking out, A Tribe Called Quest ruled, and Wu Tang channeled intelligence and youthful feelings. Think a hip hop version of ‘Dazed and Confused’, but that sounds bad. It works wonderfully within the narrative, as an almost character itself that helps out saving people and bringing them together.

Josh Peck plays the typical white boy listening to rap, but there’s such depth to his character, you’ll look past that perception. Olivia Thirbly is perfect as the desirable Stephanie; she’s the typical girl we all wanted in high school. ‘I see the dopeness in everything, and you just see the wackness’ she tells Luke. It’s true of the film too. ‘The Wackness’ is dope as it’s all about people learning and connecting, with cool visuals and a great soundtrack. Now, can I see the director’s first film, ‘All the Boys Love Mandy Lane’ now?