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Wackness, TheSet in New York City in the summer of 1994, The Wackness follows the post-graduation tribulations of Luke Shapiro (Peck), a small-time drug dealer who finishes school only to realise that he has no idea of what to do for the next six weeks, let alone the rest of his life. His closest confidant is Dr Squires (Kingsley), a psychotherapist who trades him therapy sessions for weed. As the summer unfolds the two strike up an unlikely friendship, united by their common goal of finding sex and happiness.
Their friendship isn't the only unlikely conceit in this overwhelmingly nostalgic film. Luke is a fairly prolific drug dealer working on the streets, and yet there's never any sense of danger in what he does. We're frequently told that Mayor Giuliani's draconian laws are being felt across the city, and yet the only time the police show up is to catch Luke and Dr Squires committing the minor misdemeanour of scrawling graffiti across a shop window, throwing them into jail for the night where they encounter the city's comical crazies.
This is New York City seen through rose-tinted glasses, fondly remembered as a time of hip-hop mix tapes and long sunny afternoons, when Biggie and Tupac were exciting new talents rather than victims of their own violent feud.
The result is a picture of New York that appears unrealistically safe and simplified, and the same treatment is given to the characters themselves. The outward signs of trauma and danger are there, as Luke incurs Squires' wrath by beginning a passionate relationship with his step-daughter Stephanie (Thirlby), and Squires himself abandons his loveless marriage and boring job in favour of selling drugs and chatting up oddball women. Even as the men are spiralling passionately, pharmaceutically and self-pityingly out of control, the tone remains oddly safe, as if the story is being fondly remembered years later rather than experienced in the moment.
None of this is to say that it isn't entertaining. Director Jonathan Levine paints in broad brush strokes but they look good. The hot New York summer is languidly alluring, and the dialogue consists of sharp wit and quick quips, traded back and forth with style.
Ben Kingsley evidently relishes his role as the rebellious doctor, playing Squires with more than a touch of Harvey Keitel in Taxi Driver, and with a New York accent that wanders in and out of the room at will.
Unfortunately for a film about self-discovery, there's nothing to actually discover, and arguably the most telling scene in the film comes at the end, as Josh looks out across the New York City skyline, complete with its soaring CGI twin towers. This is Levine's defining image of New York; a city before the threat of terror, nostalgically imagined in a state of grace.
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