Jonathan Levine
The Wackness is ... Ack! Yes, Even with Sir Ben Kingsley
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. read more »
Hip-Hop Hooray
The Wackness
Running time 110 minutes
Written and directed by Jonathan Levine
Starring Josh Peck, Ben Kingsley, Olivia Thirlby, Famke Janssen
Jonathan Levine’s The Wackness, from his own screenplay, takes place in New York during the summer of 1994, when the newly inaugurated mayor, Rudy Giuliani, was beginning his now notorious crackdown on all sorts of petty crimes and even mere nuisances. His name is taken in vain several times during the course of the narrative, as if he and he alone were responsible for taking all the fun out of the Lindsay/Dinkins Fun City. Still, “fun” is spelled for the most part as D-O-P-E to the musical accompaniment of the hip-hop rants of the period. read more »
Jonathan Levine Finds Work After Wackness
Jonathan Levine, whose New York '90s dramedy The Wackness is being released this weekend, has just signed on to two new projects. He'll work on Positive, a "romantic thriller" that sounds like a slightly scarier version of Meet the Parents, and Echelon Vendetta, an adaptation of David Stone's thriller novel about a CIA agent who tries to keep the organization's shady ways under wraps.
The Hollywood Reporter reports:
"Positive" centers on a twenty-something who visits his fiancee's family only to be seduced by her sister. Occupant's Joe Neurauter, Felipe Marino and Keith Calder will produce the film, which is aiming for a mid-2009 start date. read more »
Beware of Chiclet Choppers; La Schiano Loves Giant Rings
