The Wackness

"The Wackness" is made up of lukewarm leftovers of other films. See, there's this teenager who just graduated high school. (What a promising premise!) He's spending his summer slumming it, selling pot in Manhattan. And you're not going to believe this, but his parents are total jerks! Boy, parents suck, amIright?

What could possibly lift this social outcast out of his depressed stupor? Hmm...wait a minute...maybe...a girl! One who's fun and outgoing! One who can teach our young hero to look on the bright side! How uplifting!

But wait...we need another character...someone who the protagonist can talk to about his problems, so we can witness his evolution. Wait! What about...a psychiatrist! Such a brilliant conceit! I can't believe it hasn't been done before, except in a million other mediocre films from "Good Will Hunting" to "Ordinary People".

OK, you get the picture. The "twist" here is that the shrink is also one of the customers of the protagonist, Luke. (It's also worth mentioning that the shrink is played by Ben Kingsley. His presence here is puzzling but his performance is strong.) This isn't quite as original as it might seem, as two years before another indie flick, "Driving Lessons", gave us a teen guided by an old, washed up alcoholic actress.

What saves this film from total banality is its last half hour. First, we get a refreshingly honest sex scene, which shows us what a real encounter between a virgin male and a more experienced female is like. (Most films are more like "Driving Lessons", which cuts away just as the lovers are starting to kiss and assumes that the young man receives some great sexual education overnight.)

Following that, the film meanders, which makes things feel less telegraphed. And it's honest enough to deny any easy resolution for its characters.

One other point is worth mentioning: the film is set in 1994, and some have praised it for giving a true sense of the time. But mostly this leads to a tiresome exercise in throwback references to Zima and "Melrose Place". The only real sense of the times is given by repeated references to Mayor Guiliani's harsh crackdown on crime in the city. The setting mostly seems like an excuse for writer-director Jonathan Levine to play his favorite mid-90s rap tunes.