In the sweltering summer of 1994, Rudy Giuliani is scouring New York City within an inch of its life, hip-hop is permeating white youth culture, and a pot-dealing loser kid, Luke Shapiro, is trying to figure out how to solve his parents’ insolvency, beat depression, and get laid before pushing off to college. Luckily he’s got a nifty deal with a psychiatrist, Dr. Squires, who trades him therapy sessions for weed. It happens that the oddball doctor’s marriage is crumbling, so the two—one in late adolescence, the other in late middle-age—embark on messy passages into new life stages. As Luke falls for a classmate who just happens to be Squires’s daughter, the summer heats up, and he follows doctor’s orders, learning to coexist with pain and make it part of him, rather than let it become his downfall.

The Wackness plays like the luscious rush of first love, discovering great new music, meeting amazing personalities who impart the meaning of life, and realizing what you’re made of. Perfectly capturing the textures of 1990s Manhattan and the zeitgeist of worldly, yet emotionally unformed, private-school students forced to parent their parents, director Jonathan Levine conveys a whimsy, too—buoyed by the dazzlingly funny Ben Kingsley and unexpected stylistic flourishes—that gives the film’s insights and idiosyncrasies big, glorious, flapping wings.

Jonathan Levine - New York City native Jonathan Levine graduated from Brown University’s art semiotics program and went on to study directing at the American Film Institute. His AFI thesis, Shards, won the best short film award at the American Black Film Festival and garnered him the AFI Spirit of Excellence Award. Shards has aired on HBO since 2005. Levine’s first feature, All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, premiered at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival and will be released nationwide in 2008. The Wackness is Levine’s second feature and his first as writer/director.

Screenings:

Fri. January 18, 5:30pm, Racquet Club, Park City
Sun. January 20, 9:15am, Eccles Theatre, Park City
Wed. January 23, 2:30pm, Racquet Club, Park City
Thu. January 24, 8:30am, Library Center Theatre, Park City
Fri. January 25, 6:30pm, Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, SLC

Joe Neurauter
Occupant Films
5225 Wilshire Blvd., Ste. 418
Los Angeles, CA 90405

(323) 934-9106
joe@occupantfilms.com