Film Review: The Wackness

16 years ago view-show 943,866

wacknessposterfinal1.jpg

These days, you just don’t hear words like “def,” “dope” and “fly” as much as you used to. You also don’t hear as much classic hip-hop as you’d probably like to. You also probably don’t think about your high-school days and your first love as much as you once did. And, you probably miss all of those things. Thankfully, the new movie The Wackness can get you right back in that mindset and meanwhile have you jammin’ to some music you wouldn’t expect to hear in a movie theater.

The Wackness is a new movie written and directed by Jonathan Levine, and stars Josh Peck (of Drake & Josh fame) and Olivia Thirlby (played the best friend in Juno). The movie is set in the summer of 1994 in New York City and tells the story of a kid fresh out of high school with absentee parents, which causes him to regularly visit his psychiatrist, Sir Ben Kingsley. Instead of paying the shrink with money, he pays him with weed, as he’s a weed dealer. He walks around the city by day playing his old-school hip-hop and dealing to customers from his “Fresh & Delicious Ice’s” cart.

The lead character, Luke Shapiro, is definitely a lonely chap through most of the film. And, as most of us at one point or another learned how to do – he finds solace in hip-hop. Then, Luke meets a girl who’s far more social and outgoing than him, and before he knows it he falls madly in love with her. I have to say, Olivia Thirlby is amazing at playing a cute, funny and interesting chick that any high schooler would have a hard time not falling in love with.

Whether you see this movie to check out Olivia Thirlby, Method Man as a (hilarious) Jamaican weed-dealer or Marie-Kate Olsen having sex with Ben Kingsley in a bar, one thing’s for sure – you need to see this movie.

And aside from being a quality film, it features some amazing hip-hop from the likes of Tribe, Fresh Prince, Biggie, Nas and others you’ve probably not jammed to in a while. As a pleasant Friday afternoon gift, check out the official The Wackness Soundtrack Mixtape, mixed by DJ D-Nice. Enjoy.

The Official Wackness Mixtape – D-Nice