The Wackness: Or, the Story of a White Boy That Lost His Rizz

Looks like I'm gonna have to go to my safety school

In the 90s Luke Shapiro is a drug dealer that deals weed to a depressed therapist in exchange for therapy, but he falls in love with the therapist’s daughter.

• Directed and Written by Jonathan Levine.

• Starring Josh Peck and Ben Kingsley

• Featuring a soundtrack with Biggie Smalls, Nas, Method Man, Biz Markie, Lou Reed, James Brown, Ghostface Killah, ᵤₕ... ᵣ ₖₑₗₗᵧ, ᵘʰ... ᴾ ᵈᶦᵈᵈʸ.

Every single word posted above sounds like it would be absolutely hype (except for Johnathan Levine and the people on the soundtrack that are in prison for being rapist pedophiles). But this movie was not hype. It was actually maybe the worst movie ever?

It’s trying to be an edgy, dark comedy, coming of age movie, but from the opening scene you can tell you’re gonna be in for something else. I have a pretty high capacity for cringe, but this…

Plot Summary

So Jesh Peck is upset because despite acting like a down-to-earth playa that just doesn’t care, he’s straight frontin’ and is actually a lil’ incel. Also, his parents are losing all their money and their gonna get evicted. Josh wants antidepressants, but his therapist (Ben Kingsley) says those are for bitches. Josh also wants to get with Ben’s daughter.

Against his wishes, Josh pursues Ben Kingsley’s daughter, and they seem to have great chemistry together. Kingsley is pretty torn up about this, but it’s all okay because Josh teaches him to live a little bit, and Kingsley has an affair with an Olsen twin (very gross).

Later on, Josh and the daughter (we’ll call her Stacy) share a smooche, and then she finds out that he’s a virgin. On chance one to get his dick wet, Josh’s Pecker can’t get hard. The next time he finished mercifully soon. The third and final time, we get a great ass shot of Josh Peck and he puts the moves on in the shower and has a great time.

Meanwhile Ben Kingsley’s wife leaves him, and he tries to kill himself with pills, but Josh stops him.

Then Stacy drops Josh like Baby Hitler and decides to hook up with one of his friends. Rizzless, Josh Peck leaves defeated, and his parents end up getting evicted and he had to go stay with his grandparents.

The End

Why is this Movie so Bad

This movie has a lot of corny dialogs and adolescent angst, but that’s not really what makes it bad. The problem with this movie is that it feels so fake deep. Despite being played by good actors, the script can only make our two leads feel like caricatures of real people. Which could have worked if the characters were likeable, but instead they act like the angstiest, horniest men alive for most of this movie. Every emotional moment they have feels unearned because you really don’t get to see them trying.

In the Youtube comments, the only criticism I’ve seen of this movie is that “It’s slow,” but it’s nowhere near slow enough to actually make our unlikeable leads into 3 dimensional characters.

I watched this movie because I really liked the movies mid90s and Mean Creek. Both of those movies are slower, but the characters are given decent motivations and architypes beyond I’m so depressed and women hate me. Everything else felt kinda ad-libbed. Josh Peck in Mean Creek is a disturbed kid with serious anger issues that deep down just wants to be liked. In mid90s, the friend group that forms feels like real people with complex relationship dynamics. The Wackness has a concept, a soundtrack, and not much else.

People Seem to Really Like This Movie

I’d always hear about this movie in underrated movies forum posts and threads. It was always hyped up as “a movie that bombed but deserved more credit.” It’s sitting at a 71% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 72% from audiences.

If we look at 2008’s movie season, none of the other movies that made it to theaters really feel like it. Those movies were all high-energy blockbusters or continuations of TV shows, and The Wackness seemed to be in direct opposition to what was popular at the time which made it more interesting. Now that streaming services can product a medium budget slow-moving, coming of age movie in a weekend, The Wackness stands easily outclassed.