The Wackness

Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: July 3, 2008

7.4	USER SCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 41 Ratings

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User Reviews

User score By date Most helpful

JoelSJan 11, 2009

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

2 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

DanCMar 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

JaneAJan 25, 2009

Definitely not the parallel to Juno I went into the theater expecting it to be. But it had its moments, especially with the conflict concerning the integrity of an old man and the identity of a directionless teen, and was not a complete Definitely not the parallel to Juno I went into the theater expecting it to be. But it had its moments, especially with the conflict concerning the integrity of an old man and the identity of a directionless teen, and was not a complete waste of time.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful

JosephSJan 7, 2009

Not my kind of movie, but after seeing that Josh kid in his Nickolodean show, I was rather surprised at his ability to act. Guess can't judge without really seeing them try. OK movie.

0 of 0 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 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