Winner of this year’s Sundance Audience Prize, The Wackness is set in 1994, the year its writer-director Jonathan Levine graduated from high school and the debut albums of Nas, Method Man, Notorious B.I.G. and Outkast got into his head. “1994 found New York at a crossroads,” says Levine in his Director’s Statement. “And it found hip hop at its creative apex.”
Thus, two of the key protagonists of this film are a sun-drenched New York and a fresh-out-of-’94 soundtrack which you can listen to if you go to the chic official website and click on the ghettoblaster in the right hand corner.
The other stars are Josh Peck (who played the ‘fat’ kid in Mean Creek back in 2004) as our depressed, dope-dealing narrator Luke Shapiro, and Ben Kingsley as his dope-smoking shrink.
The film looks like a romcom with an indie-style poise and wit; self-deprecating alongside its own tenderness:
“I got mad love for you shortie. I wanna, like, listen to Boyz II Men when I’m with you,” Luke confesses, guiltily. Bless him. We’ve all been there.
The Wackness is due for UK release 29 August.
