The Jonathan Levine film's signature line, "It's like I always see the dopeness in life and you always see the wackness," really spoke to me. Sometimes I feel like there are two kins of people in the world, who see everything through different frames -- the dopeness and the wackness. Me, I tend to see the dopeness. The main character, Luke (played by Josh Peck), only sees the wackness. So, despite being a high school drug dealer who listens to all the hottest hip hop of 1994 New York City, Luke has no friends and scares off most women despite his deep desire otherwise. He befriends his shrink Dr. Squires (Ben Kingsley), paying him in weed for the therapy. Eventually, we learn the good Doctor is also afflicted with the wackness, and the two of them go on a rampage looking to pick up women all across New York (this is when Mary Kate Olson makes her appearance as a young slut who nearly sleeps with the old doctor). The Doctor's wife decides to divorce him and he attempts to drown himself in the ocean.
Squires and Luke maintain a friendship even though Luke begins dating his daughter Stephanie (Olivia Thirlby). Stephanie seems to enjoy Luke, but we soon discover she viewed the encounter as a summer fling, and she breaks up with him by saying the film's signature line.
Enough summary, I really enjoyed this movie. The soundtrack brimming with mid-1990s hip-hop constantly kept bringing me back to my own early days of becoming a hip-hop head. Plus, I could easily identify with the socially awkward main character, and even though his pessimism is foreign to my general attitude, I know people like this and can easily see how my life could have taken this turn.
All in all, the movie is a very well done time-piece, so perfectly set in the mid 1990s. Anyone who came of age around this time (as does Luke and the director) will immediately relate and probably really dig the soundtrack.
The Wackness gets a Two Beer Review from Renaissance Human.
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