The Wackness

Starring: Josh Peck, Sir Ben Kingsley, Famke Janssen, Olivia Thirlby, Mary-Kate Olsen, Jane Adams, Method Man and Aaron Yoo

Written by: Jonathan Levine

Directed by: Jonathan Levine

Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics

Rated: Rated R

Mary-Kate Olsen and Ben Kingsley in The Wackness

Those of us who graduated from high school in the mid-90s are now in our early 30s. Thirty-two year-old writer/Director Jonathan Levine wears this generational designation on his sleeve as he presents The Wackness—a retro coming of age, pseudo-romantic, cross-generational buddy comedy/drama set in the summer of 1994. Bit actor Josh Peck (Drillbit Taylor, Mean Creek and a whole bunch of TV) debuts on center frame as Luke Shapiro. Luke is a kid living in New York with his parents for one last summer in 1995 before heading off to college.

Luke funds his college savings plan by selling weed out of a refrigerated street vendor’s cart that he wheels all over Manhattan. One of his most prominent clients is Dr. Squires—a baby boomer psychologist played with typically magnetic poise by Sir Ben Kingsley (Gandhi, Sneakers, Sexy Beast). He and Luke trade pot for therapy, and the two strike up an unlikely friendship even as Luke harbors an intense attraction to Squire’s stepdaughter Stefani (played by relative newcomer Olivia Thirlby)

Aside from the engaging milieu of Manhattan in the very specific summer of 1994, little is truly unique to this film. While it’s interesting to see nostalgia for the heyday of mix-tapes and beepers, The Wackness is merely a simple coming of age story and the period window dressing does nothing to enhance it. Thankfully, at least one twist keeps the ancient formula from tiresome redundancy – both Luke and Dr. Squires are coming of age. While Luke deals with the stresses of entering the real world for the first time, Dr. Squires deals with the stresses of entering the real world for the first time again as he deals with a divorce and the emotional trauma of life outside marriage once more.

Ben Kingsley – as expected – holds up his end of the dramatic bargain with thrilling precision. We see him as both wise and childish, messing things up and doing drugs while still providing much of the backbone for the compelling cross-generational friendship at the heart of the film. But it’s not enough to make the film satisfying. Peck’s performance is impressive, but he’s not established enough as an actor to make an uninteresting character appealing, and while Thirlby’s acting is natural and organic, much of her performance pivots on her silence. There is so much her character isn’t saying that it seems at times as though she walked out of an entirely different film. When she exits the frame, it’s not difficult to imagine her just strolling into some other movie – one that is perhaps better executed than The Wackness, but possibly just as far away from satisfying.VS