The Wackness is ... Ack! Yes, Even with Sir Ben Kingsley
Remember the hazy days of 1994? Don’t bother! Plus: Josh Hartnett has mashed-potato mouth in August
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TheWackness
Running time 110 minutes
Written and directed by Jonathan Levine
Starring Josh Peck, Ben Kingsley, Olivia Thirlby, Famke Janssen, Mary-Kate Olsen
Not the least of the problems facing people who write about movies on a weekly basis is the deadlines. You can’t say, “I think I’d rather go to the beach today.” The empty space looms at you like a computerized monster, always demanding to be filled with your words, whether you have anything to say or not. Also, they say as you get older your attention span shortens. I don’t know about that, but I can promise you as sure as Monday follows the weekend that as the world changes and filmmakers get younger, the quality of motion pictures has diminished, and I find very few movies of worthwhile value to hold my interest. Writing about movies has become a chore, not a pleasure.
And so the Fourth of July holiday now brings a whole new batch of rubbish that is not worth coming in from the barbecue to write about. You can start with a mutton-headed waste of time called The Wackness that is every bit as moronic and meaningless as its title. You see them all the time: movies that just don’t move or signify or engage. This is one of them. Set in 1994 for no reason except that’s the year the film’s incompetent writer-director, Jonathan Levine, graduated from high school, it stars a doughy wonk with a face like a Big Mac bun named Josh Peck, as a teenage drug dealer named Luke, who trades weed for sessions with a zonked-out shrink named Dr. Squires. Sad to see Ben Kingsley trashing his reputation to play this stoned therapist, who looks like a Bowery bum as he pumps a dreadlocked Lolita (Mary-Kate Olsen) in a phone booth and dispenses mush-tongued jabberwocky in a fog of marijuana. The doctor (prove it) is an old degenerate who lusts after little girls; snorts and smokes every drug he can get his hands on; and blames everything on Giuliani. I guess it’s no coincidence that 1994 is also the inaugural year of New York’s right-wing mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who declared war on graffiti, nudity in museums, and portable radios. Instead of cracking down on Times Square porno flicks, he should have dragged in junk peddlers like the pair of goony, intergenerational protagonists at the center of this empty narrative.
Never-endingly desperate for more dope, Dr. Squires follows Luke around New York in a semi-horizontal haze while passing off his stepdaughter as a cure for his patient’s sex crisis. Drug dealers usually have no problem being popular or getting laid. Luke is the exception, and the reasons are obvious. For starters, he can scarcely form complete sentences. While Dr. Squires gives him step-by-step advice on how to get into his own stepdaughter’s pants, it’s also obvious why his long-suffering wife (Famke Janssen) eventually walks out. (As though in unison, the audience asks the same question: What took her so long?) Meanwhile, Luke engages Dr. Squires as his partner, as they sell their illegal wares from an Italian ice cream wagon. If nothing else, The Wackness will make you think twice the next time you see the Good Humor Man. Dr. Squires takes his miserable wife away for an outing while her daughter takes Luke to Fire Island for some awkward, mentally challenged mattress maneuvers, but nothing ever happens. What you get is dull, colorless characters played by uninteresting actors who shrug and mutter “whatever” when an issue is raised. You also get sophomoric, self-conscious dialogue and gimmicky, speeded-up camerawork that signifies the kind of self-indulgent filmmaking that usually premieres at Sundance and always successfully manages to camouflage all attempts at any deeper “meaning.” The girl gets bored. Dr. Squires’ wife dumps him. Luke’s father loses all of his family money and moves Luke to New Jersey, where, I assume, he grows up to direct The Wackness. Like the new breed of 20-somethings with no story to tell and no idea how to tell it if they had one, Jonathan Levine is clueless, and The Wackness goes nowhere fast. It just hangs.
rreed@observer.com
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"Drug dealers usually have no problem being popular or getting laid."
This sentence alone proves that you, Mr Reed, are extremely out of touch with any reality that hasn't been made into a movie cliche. Instead of lamenting your oldness and your crappy job, you should probably just retire. I'm sure you're what an elderly movie reviewer in 1963 must have sounded like when he bemoaned the "cluelessness" and the "no story filmmaking" of the new "trends" cinema at that time. Hang it up, Rex.
I kindly suggest, Mr. Reed, that you retire and spare the world your outbursts of frustration and hatred. Maybe you should make an effort to re-discover happiness in your life, as the world is not as wacky as you unfortunately convey it in your writing. Peace!
Disappointingly childish review. Name-calling without any explanation doesn't say anything about this film. I suppose every generation of young directors needs older reviewers to call them incompetent and clueless.
Love ya Rex. Spot on. (And I'm 28)
Wow. The ravings of a bitter, bitter man. Sounds like it's time for a career change, but why take let the unhappyness soil your work in the meantime.
Again, it is such a pleasure to read Mr. Reed and his candid commentary. I look forward to next week.
It is laughable that the people who send comments ,are the ones that are childish and completely out of touch with what qualifies as a good movie......Rex Reed is and always has been the best of all the reviewers in ny....not only is it true that the younger people today would not know quality movies if they were hit in the head with them...but they lack any kind of personality ..get off the computer and see what life is really like,,,,then you can talk....and Rex not only are you 100% right...but the tonys this year were the worst ever...no one can write a broadway musical or direct as in the old days.....bring back movies like rear window....anatomy of a murder...etc....keep writing Rex some of us out there still have brains that work............
It is laughable that the people who send comments ,are the ones that are childish and completely out of touch with what qualifies as a good movie......Rex Reed is and always has been the best of all the reviewers in ny....not only is it true that the younger people today would not know quality movies if they were hit in the head with them...but they lack any kind of personality ..get off the computer and see what life is really like,,,,then you can talk....and Rex not only are you 100% right...but the tonys this year were the worst ever...no one can write a broadway musical or direct as in the old days.....bring back movies like rear window....anatomy of a murder...etc....keep writing Rex some of us out there still have brains that work............
Stay in there and keep writing those fascinating reviews Mr Reed! We need your agile balancing, full honesty and keen wit to keep us alert to a winner and away from the grim reality of no-talent entertainment.
...because its something a black person might say? how about "moronic and meaningless" as this review...all i got from it was the fact that you are so out of touch that you don't even know what was going on 15 years ago. just because you don't know what a word means doesn't make it meaningless, moron. this movie may well be every bit as horrible as you say, but this ignorance masquerading as opinion doesn't serve any purpose except as a half-hearted reach-around to those who aren't sure if they should feel racist for never having understood "black people" music...
Thank GOD somebody out there finally had the balls to criticize this lame, messed up, confused, unfocused mess of a film. "The Wackness" should have been called "Hip-Hop-For-Dummies" because that's the only people this awful film will appeal to: Dummies and people from Sundance, Utah, whose only experience of New York is through gimmicky and artificial films like this one. Jonathan Levine may be able to fool people out West, but anyone who grew up in the city knows how lame and unauthentic this film feels. Mary-Kate Olsen? Come on "homeboy," she was starring on Full House with her sister in 1994 (the year this film was set.)
I applaud Mr. Reed for his keen observations, and find it very hypocritical that the same people that are lamenting his use of "insults" are likewise insulting the reviewer for being old. Age is an advantage for Mr. Reed, as he obviously has the experience to know an immature, self-loathing filmmaker when he sees one. Anyone who enjoyed this film was either asleep during the 90's and wants to experience it for the first time, or going through a mid-life crisis of their own and wants to revisit the lost days of their youth. Too bad they have to revisit it through the eyes of whiney, self-pitying protagonist and a director who probably took "Hip-Hop 101" in college.
im just saying, there was some legit criticism in there peppered with a lot of weirdly ignorant pointless bullshit that just spoke to not only the writer's lack of understanding of some material related to the movie, but his unwillingness to do the slightest bit of research with regards to some off- hand comments. more to the point, these comments added nothing to the usefulness of the review. to say that the movie is "as moronic and meaningless as the title" is itself a meaningless statement because the title has more meaning for some than it does to mr. reed. thats just stupid writing. thats all.
Rex Reed, I've been reading your work for decades, and all I can say is if you justifiably pack in the movie review job, you are going to break hearts all over the US. Especially mine. I agree with your 100%, there is nothing but crap crap crap being churned out, with a side order of comics books. But if you quit, who else out there is going to put down the exact words we would use, if only we were so talented? You are right most of the time, and those who disagree with you just don't know any better. I remember a TV show long ago, with a conversation between an old guy and a young woman who both lived in NYC, and she was telling him about her life and how she liked to have fun. He laughed and said, "New York now is a cesspool, and all you poor kids don't know it. You only think you're having fun." Lots of us appreciate you, Mr. Reed. (And don't ever stop reviewing the old ladies in big wigs who warble obscure show tunes! Those reviews not only make me laugh, but are kind of touching, and I don't think there's anyone else who would take the time to write such kind things."
I too very much did not enjoy this movie; this review, however, is stupid. Dude, it's like he freakin blogged stoned about this movie and then was like, "Eh, fuck it, they'll probably publish it." What a stupidly-written review. Dude, drink some coffee and get a girlfriend; then you'll be less bitter and more alert to hand in something that isn't your angry musings. I mean this movie seriously sucked -- don't you have any somewhat more descriptive criticisms than " it stars a doughy wonk with a face like a Big Mac bun"? Dude, that d=guy;s face is the least of this movie's problems.
I too very much did not enjoy this movie; this review, however, is stupid. Dude, it's like he freakin blogged stoned about this movie and then was like, "Eh, fuck it, they'll probably publish it." What a stupidly-written review. Dude, drink some coffee and get a girlfriend; then you'll be less bitter and more alert to hand in something that isn't your angry musings. I mean this movie seriously sucked -- don't you have any somewhat more descriptive criticisms than " it stars a doughy wonk with a face like a Big Mac bun"? Dude, that d=guy;s face is the least of this movie's problems.
hey! i have an idea! how about you put as much work into reviewing movies as you insist people should put into making them! no? ok. never mind, it was a stupid idea. i just had another one though. i think you'll like this one better. how about you just kill yourself because i hear the movies in heaven are all good because they are all exactly like Kit Kittredge: An American Girl! Just Do It!
Beautiful review! I have seen (and reviewed) the movie myself and have to say that I liked it, but I can't resist such painfully precise observations. Do the world a favour: Do not (!) retire.
I saw the movie and I'm closer to the filmmaker's age than the reviwer's. I found the movie boring and self-indulgent. That the director was able to get funding for this movies proves the reviewer right. This movie was an insipid, waste of my time and money. I will say, though, that Ben Kingsley is always amazing to see. The rest of the movie, characters, story (if you can call it that), can 'walk off into the ocean.'
Oh, and method man's accent! AWFUL!!!!! My GOD! AWFUL!!
You say: "Set in 1994 for no reason except that’s the year the film’s incompetent writer-director, Jonathan Levine, graduated from high school..."
and only a few sentences later you say: "I guess it’s no coincidence that 1994 is also the inaugural year of New York’s right-wing mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who declared war on graffiti, nudity in museums, and portable radios."
Well then yes, Mr. Reed, maybe 1994 wasn't such a trivial detail after all. You may have a few valid points in this mess, I'm just having a hard time sifting through all of the junk trying to find them.
This movie was an insult to my intelligence, an affront to my wisdom, and a slap-in-the-face to everyone over the legal drinking age. Supposedly set in some late-2000s version of "1994", this movie is instead written as if it were depicting disaffected (very early) 20-something hipsters ca. 2008. In its attempts to depict 1994, this movie flounders and flops all over like a hapless trout in a bucket. This festival of self-righteous self-pity wallows in its self-indulgence so much it forgets to develop its narrative.
Mr. Reed is spot-on in his scorn toward this self-centered garbage, as well as of the film's despicable director. This film should have been a nostalgic coming-of-age tale about a Gen-Xer coming to age, lost in a lonely world. Instead it wallows in self-centered self-pity and glamorizes self-destruction in that all-too-familiar manner we see everywhere in 2008. This movie isn't about Gen-Xers at all, and should not have been set in 1994.
If this is anything close to an Easy Rider for our generation, we're done for.