The Wackness

In the summer of ’94, Luke (Josh Peck), a high school drug dealer, falls in love, gets some therapy and sells a lot of pot. Olivia Thirbly (of Juno) plays the object of his affection, and her wacky stepdad (Ben Kingsley) is his shrink. Luke tries to sell as much drugs as possible from his ice cream cart in order to help his financially troubled parents. Writer-director Jonathan Levine does a good job capturing the period, and the performers do good work, especially Kingsley as the eccentric doctor. Shapiro and Thirbly play a convincing young couple, a young couple that is mightily flawed. The film has some slow stretches, but it always comes back the strength of the performances. Mary-Kate Olsen shows up as a Deadhead if that’s of interest to you.