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trailer

I'm so mad at myself for missing this at Tribeca, now I have to wait until July.

I'm sick as fuck of New York City as a cinematic topic. Hipsters in New York really ain't shit to the rest of the world. "Ha haa." Does that get you wet, you hot hispanic ladies?

But I'm from San Francisco, and we've got an inferiority complex about NYC and its superior dopeness.

This film looks badly lit.

Larry Clark meets Jason Reitman?

bunuelian wrote:I'm sick as fuck of New York City as a cinematic topic. Hipsters in New York really ain't shit to the rest of the world. "Ha haa." Does that get you wet, you hot hispanic ladies?

But I'm from San Francisco, and we've got an inferiority complex about NYC and its superior dopeness.

This film looks badly lit.

Those aren't hipsters.

This could be the greatest movie in the world and it would still be called the Wackness

I saw this at Sundance and was not impressed. I imagine that the marketing pitch will be Goodwill Hunting - mathematics and Elliott Smith + marijuana and hip hop = the indie hit of the summer. Ben Kingsley has a lot of fun with his role (he even gets to make out with an Olsen twin?!), and his performance is definitely worth watching, but the film was essentially conventional indiewood "learn how to become in touch with life and have an awkward first sex scene along the way" territory. (So, of course, it won the Audience Award at Sundance.)

EDIT: After watching the trailer, my vision of the marketing strategy was all but confirmed.

The first teaser leaves out most of the mentor stuff.

Jesus if I knew 1994 was "paradise in NYC" I would have paid a lot more attention.

Graffiti had died about 5 or 6 yrs earlier and was replaced by the shit street motion throwups of dudes like JA & RD357, the weed was and is and always has been good (and forever getting better), and most of the great rap of the early mid-90's was coming from LA.

Dweebs. Any attentive child knows paradise in NYC ran from the 70's to the mid 80's. No really. I swear. No really.

It was before the mass gentrification of nyc.

HerrSchreck wrote:Graffiti had died about 5 or 6 yrs earlier and was replaced by the shit street motion throwups of dudes like JA & RD357, the weed was and is and always has been good (and forever getting better), and most of the great rap of the early mid-90's was coming from LA.

Were the girls fly?

I think that trailer is sort of okay, though, if only for Biz Markie.

New trailer.

margot wrote:It was before the mass gentrification of nyc.

Only 1994?

Red band trailer.

I'll be seeing this tomorrow.

Andrew O’Hehir wrote:I'll issue one word of caution: It tells you something about the weakness of American independent film in 2008 that "The Wackness" is emerging as one of the year's best offerings. It's a lovely movie that's likely to engage a relatively large audience, and it was clearly made in good faith and good cheer by a confident young director with a bright future. The spirit of the picture, I would say, is impeccable, but there's something approximate about its characters, dialogue and story. It's as if there's a great film waiting to be made about these people in that place and time, and "The Wackness" gets about, oh, 68 percent of the way there.

O'Hehir gets it exactly right here. Sundance was a big disappointment this year, folks.* I saw most of the films in the dramatic competition. The fact that a movie as bland as The Wackness was a standout tells you everything that you need to know about indie cinema this year.

* Fleck and Boden's Sugar was the standout for me and the only truly great film that I saw at the festival.

The Wackness is a very sweet film. I enjoyed it way more than I thought I would. Ben Kingsley is always fun to watch when he's given something to do with his talents, and he steals the show here. The dialogue is often witty, and it doesn't peddle nostalgia as much as you think. The running Giuliani bash is hilarious everytime, but never overemphasized.

Levine shows a bright future for performance and tone. But perhaps not cinematography. I would've loved a fill light. The underexposures did no favors for the actors either. Levine is getting solid performances; I want to be able to see them! Is there a motivation that Ben Kingsley doesn't turn on the lights in his office? Overall though, this film is the case of a director who had a personal story to tell, and he put it on screen. That, in itself, is worthwhile.

I wouldn't cast aspersions on indie film as a whole. There's tons of good stuff out there, especially at smaller festivals. What's distressing to me is that it's becoming increasingly difficult for American indie dramas to break out into the mainstream or even larger fests because everyone just wants to find the next Little Miss Sunshine or because programmers sometimes favor diversity over quality. But really, that's for another thread.

Download the official Wackness mixtape here.

I saw this tonight and mostly agree with Grand Illusion. I thought it was a very sweet film too, but elevated a bit higher because it doesn't offer a pat conclusion. It's a wonderfully languid film, that really captures the hazy, humid, just Giuliani-ed New York City circa 1994. Having spent a lot of time in NYC around the same age/time of the lead character I think Levine really hit the nail on the head with that vibe. It's just a kid finding himself, dealing pot, falling in love, figuring his shit out in the months before college. There are no big revelations just a few small lessons. Thankfully, the adults aren't absent in the this like many of these kinds of films tend to do. They're around, they're well written, and they are also fucked up in their own ways. Levine doesn't try and make any grand statement, but just sort of quietly drives the point home that nothing really gets easier, sometimes getting drunk or getting high is what you need but most importantly, having someone to do it with.

The performances, particularly Kingsley (and it must be said, that his role comes out fully fleshed instead of stunt really speaks to the quality of the script) are solid all around. The cinematography - shoot in hazy browns and faded Polaroid blues - is nice and the soundtrack is a lot of fun.

It's not a great film, but it's a charming one and I can't think of a better summer film that really captures how blissed out the season can be.

Best DVD promotion ever.

At least they know their audience. Not that the movie needs it anyway.