The Wackness: Critic Reviews

Jonathan Levine's The Wackness is a studiously offbeat coming-of-age crowd-pleaser set in New York City during the long-ago, far-away days of...the summer of 1994.

The Wackness makes a good-faith effort to steer clear of coming-of-age story cliches, and succeeds and fails in roughly equal measure.

The Wackness is both darkly funny and life-affirming, in an offbeat and offhanded way.

Man, have we been here before.

A mix tape of cliches.

On the downside: There is a wackness to The Wackness, a saggy psychic undertow that drags down its lighter and smarter aspects.

The fun is watching Thirlby -- second banana in Juno -- do a tantalizing sex-bomb number, and Kingsley get to flout his knighthood by sticking his tongue down the throat of Mary-Kate Olsen.

What saves this movie, which won this year's audience award at Sundance, from being boring are performances by two actors who see a chance to go over the top and aren't worried about the fall on the other side.

For about half its length, Jonathan Levine's film The Wackness resembles a grunge remake of The Graduate, updated for the peculiarly specific setting of 1994 New York City.

The characters are sympathetically drawn and the modest wisdom rings true.

A generous-spirited study of characters in pain.

The Wackness, for all its eccentricities and emotional pain, is really a sweet little film.

Levine, who wrote the film as well as directed it, re-creates 1994 with the painstaking detail usually reserved for period pieces and costume dramas.

A mutton-headed waste of time that is every bit as moronic and meaningless as its title.

A remarkable cast supplies subtlety and balance to the mostly downward spiral of the narrative.

The Wackness treads this familiar terrain with assurance and distinction.

That first sight of Ben Kingsley sucking down a bowl will burn into your memory. You may be watching The Wackness but it's hard to forget that this is Gandhi putting Bic to bong in Jonathan Levine's silly, sappy and sympathetic coming-of-age memoir.

The Wackness exudes a vibe that is rich in emotional truth, even if some of the details get lost in a green haze.

For all of Kingsley's hamming, he can't overshadow Peck's mournful performance. Nor can you forget the film's reminder that the cruellest thing you can say to a teenager is that these are the best years of his life.

It won the Audience Award at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, but don't let that be a source of dissuasion. It's actually a pretty good movie.

Inspired a packed Sundance house to forget their Saturday-night pains and stand up and cheer.

Wackness is ultimately less evocative of pre-Sept. 11 Manhattan than it is of post-Sept. 11 Park City, Utah, where the film had its Sundance debut, and where festival audiences never tire of rebel-male angst and bluesy, guitar-inflected scoring.

It's an utterly routine picture, but its low-key mood and acting disarm

With a game cast and cool songs from the era... heartfelt moments battling clumsy ones, The Wackness isn't quite dope but, like a good mixtape it is full of highlights.