Review of The Wackness (2008) by Steven N — 11 Apr 2009

Without question, "The Wackness" is among the better films released in 2008. Directed by Arthur Levine, the movie tells the story of a socially awkward pot dealer played by Josh Peck, who falls in love with the local "cool girl," discovers that his parents are broke, and strikes up a very unusual friendship with his therapist, who is played by Ben Kingsley.

The performances are solid from top to bottom, with Kingsley and Peck being the standouts. While the story does stumble a bit here, struggling to stay focused, it offers up enough uniqueness, comedy, and metaphor to more than make up for its faults.

Admittedly, some of the ideas in "The Wackness" have been done before, and some of the attempts to point out that the film is set in the 90's seem a bit over-the-top, but neither of these things ruins the overall feeling of the film.

There were a lot of very good films released in 2008 and in my humble opinion, "The Wackness" at the very least deserves to be mentioned among the best. This is a well made, thoughtful, funny little piece of work, and it's more than worth a viewing.