Quadruple Feature Part Two: The Wackness

The Wackness
Directed by Jonathan Levine
Released July 3, 2008

The title of “The Wackness” prepares you perfectly for the journey the film will take you on – a drugged-out yet remarkably grounded exploration of the intersecting lives of two malcontent 1990s New Yorkers dealing with problems at home and simple boredom with their unenthusiastic lives. The film has an incredibly distinctive style which is at times straight-up weird and at others intoxicating and moving. The music utilizes music entirely effectively, broadening the characters’ personalities while simultaneously giving the film a certain beat. Though the 90s were only a decade ago, the film still has a wonderfully appropriate dated feel which makes it all the more intriguing. It’s wicked fun to see the usually stock serious Ben Kingsley go out on such on a limb to portray a goofy psychiatrist who really has little idea what he is doing yet still searches continually for his own meaning in life. My impression of Kingsley is starkly contrasted by my lack of amusement with co-lead Josh Peck, fresh off of a Nickelodeon television show, whose lack of motivation and deep-rooted laziness seems to extend far beyond the character he’s portraying on screen. The character does contrast nicely with Kingsley’s, but as a result Kingsley is stuck with carrying most of the film all by himself. Fortunately, Olivia Thirlby, who shined recently as the best friend of the pregnant “Juno”, is on hand as Kingsley’s daughter and Peck’s love interest, a performance that showcases her talent and shows that this girl really needs to be in a lot of movies in the future. I was very saddened by the relative absence of Famke Janssen, who blew me away with her trippy performance on “Nip/Tuck” a few years ago, and who might have given an only appropriate similar performance here, or at least something along the lines of Annette Bening in “Running with Scissors”. Janssen’s screentime is limited, however, and we’re stuck with the oddball duo of Kingsley and Peck. The dialogue here is more than ridiculous, and I cannot honestly believe people actually talk like that, but it magically works just right for this heavily offbeat and massively entertaining film.

B+