The Wackness
What:
The Wackness
When:
Opens Nov 13
Where:
Cinema Nova
Win:
We have 10 dbl passes to give away! To enter, email with the subject line ‘Graffiti font abuse kills'
A 90210 joke here, a Boyz II Men comment there, some RIP Kurt Cobain street art for good measure, and hey presto: it's 1994! Welcome to director Jonathan Levine's The Wackness.
This earnest, urban melodrama is hardly Spike Lee. When white guy Luke (Josh Peck) falls in love with white girl Stephanie (Olivia Thirlby), the warm fuzzies aren't exactly dumbed down, but there's no brain-breaking politics either.
The novel mid-1990s setting could have easily reduced The Wackness to little more than a soundtrack looking for somewhere to happen, and it's true that it can feel a little like a glorified teen flick about cherry-popping and the plight of confused grown-ups - just with bad-ass drug montages and an abuse of graffiti font.
What saves it are a series of genuinely charming moments, such as when a surprisingly cute Mary Kate Olsen makes out with Ben Kingsley. So if, like us, the thought of Gandhi snogging an Olsen twin works for you, then The Wackness may just be the feel-good film of the summer.
Format: Cinema
Mood: Nostalgic
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