The Wackness at TFF

We almost passed this movie over when flipping through the Tribeca Film Festival's guide due to its name. We had second thoughts a second time when we found out that one scene features a make-out session between Sir Ben Kingsley and Mary-Kate Olsen. Good thing we ignored our instincts and got tickets to the premiere.

The story of a wayward middle-aged psychiatrist and an equally wayward teenage drug dealer, The Wackness is also a New York movie through and through, replete with references to the transformation of the city under Giuliani (the movie takes place in the summer of 1994). In addition to the fast and funny dialogue and great acting, the movie boasts a (dare we say) bumping soundtrack, chock-full of seminal early 90s NYC hip-hop. (There's a great scene in which the Wu-Tang Clan's Method Man introduces the main character to the beats of an up-and-coming rapper--the Notorious B.I.G.)

In the Q-and-A afterward, the cast and director emphasized their excitement about bringing the movie home to New York, since many of them are natives. While we weren't here in 1994--and most of the actors weren't out of elementary school--the movie captures the humidity and the possibility of summer in the city.

Photo: thanks