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The Wackness

Rated R · 95 minutes · 2008

Comedy, Drama

In Manhattan during the summer of 1994, a lonely, horny teenage boy (TV actor Josh Peck) gets sent to a psychologist (Ben Kingsley) and finds a buddy — the shrink smokes blunts with him, accompanies him to bars, listens to the kid’s hip-hop music, and has a sympathetic, beautiful daughter (Olivia Thirlby). In other words, the therapy works. Writer-director Jonathan Levine’s coming-of-ager is every bit as fantastic as Alice in Wonderland but we swallow it happily, helped along by Levine’s glib dialogue (“I’m mad depressed, yo”) and the promise of young love. It’s an exercise in style and wit, with extra bonus points for the dream combo of Kingsley and Thirlby (95 min.). By Kelly Vance

Official Site: www.thewackness.com
Director: Jonathan Levine
Writer: Jonathan Levine
Producer: Keith Calder
Cast: Ben Kingsley, Famke Janssen, Josh Peck, Olivia Thirlby, Mary-Kate Olsen, Method Man, Aaron Yoo, Charlene Biton, Nicole Berger and Sean Dillon

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