The Wackness is a coming of age story chronicling the post-graduation summer of Luke Shapiro (Josh Peck, Drake and Josh), a pot dealer who peddles his wares from a flavored ice cart on the streets of New York. One of his favorite customers is Dr. Jeffrey Squires (Ben Kingsley), who trades Luke therapy for weed. Luke also has a crush on Dr. Squires' step-daughter, Stephanie (Olivia Thirlby), who is also one of his customers. To complicate matters, Luke's parents fight all the time and his dad hasn't been making the best financial decisions as of late, leading to an impending eviction for the Shapiro family.
As Luke tries to discover the meaning of life, he finds himself falling for Stephanie, who is aloof and just wants to "hang out" instead of having a serious relationship. Although Dr. Squires is trying to be a friend to Luke and to counsel him, he finds himself becoming more and more alienated from his trophy wife, Kristin (Famke Janssen), and seeks Luke's counsel on what to do with his life. Together, they explore their options, mainly "getting laid" and a wee bit of criminal mischief.
The Wackness is a really odd film and although all of the actors turn in really good performances, I just never found the storyline too compelling. In fact, I was more than a bit bored, to be honest. Although the movie is supposed to be autobiographical of the film's writer/director Jonathan Levine, by his own admission in one of the featurettes, he wasn't a drug dealer, much less one that sells his goods from a push-cart. Instead, he merely smoked pot when he was in high school, and admittedly still does, for that matter. Personally, I didn't like the fact that The Wackness tended to really glorify drug use.
Method Man turns in a good performance as Shapiro's drug supplier and Mary-Kate Olsen is a wee bit creepy as the drugged out hippie chick, but it still wasn't enough to engage me for the long haul. There are a few special features such as some deleted scenes, commentary, a behind the scenes featurette and two episodes of "Luke Shapiro's Dope Show," these public access shows having been recently "unearthed". Those were the funniest and most enjoyable of all.
Basically, I just didn't find the movie all that interesting. It's not bad, per se, just dull.
