The Wackness
Written and Directed by Jonathan Levine
Starring Josh Peck, Ben Kingsley, Famke Janssen, Olivia Thirlby, Mary Kate Olsen, Method Man

With his second movie "The Wackness," director Jonathan Levine looks to be joining the likes of Marcos Siega ("Pretty Persuasion") and Craig Gillespie ("Lars and the Real Girl") in the exclusive club of recent directors whose first two movies are released in the same year, with their second effort far surpassing the first. In this case, few people will even believe that Levine's two movies were even by the same director maybe because unlike the teen slasher "All the Boys Love Mandy Lane," Levine wrote "The Wackness" himself, presumably based on his own experiences living in New York City during the '90s.

Taking place entirely during the summer of '94, it stars Josh Peck as Luke Shapiro, a middle class Jewish boy living in the city who makes his money by selling pot to classmates and others out of a modified Italian ice cart. He has struck a deal with new age psychiatrist Dr. Geoffrey Squires (Ben Kingsley) to trade marijuana for therapy, to deal with his depression over his inability to get laid. As a bond is formed between the two of them, Squires starts acting more like Luke's friend than his doctor, offering him advice on women, not realizing that Luke has his sights set on the doctor's own step-daughter Stephanie, played by the sexy Olivia Thirlby from "Juno."

For the most part, this is an unlikely "buddy comedy" about the relationship between Luke and this pot-smoking psychiatrist, who despite their age difference have parallel frustrations with the opposite sex. Even though he eagerly gives Luke advice on women, Dr. Squires is having marital problems with his 40-something trophy wife (played by Famke Janssen), who has completely lost interest in having sex with her husband, so Squires starts palling around with his young liege. At the same time, "The Wackness" is a very sweet first love story about how Luke pursues the way-out-of-his-league Stephanie, and how their relationships evolves, while Luke's parents deal with financial woes that threaten to send Luke packing to New Jersey.

Peck, who played "the fat kid" in the indie "Mean Street" has grown up, lost weight and does an admirable job as the pathetic loser trying to be cool and lose his virginity, talking like the typical white teens of the time whose vernacular comes from listening to rap music. His innocent quest for love should remind one favorably of "Superbad" although most guys should be able to relate to how badly Luke botches up his relationship with Stephanie after finally doing the deed, including the painfully awkward phone message that spirals downwards into anger the longer he talks.

It's impossible not to laugh watching Sir Ben "Gandhi" Kingsley sporting a very different look and trying to act hip to seem cooler to his young friend Luke, but he ends up acting mostly inappropriate to everyone they encounter, making this one of Kingsley's more memorable roles in some time.

The female roles aren't nearly as strong, although Thirlby is terrific as the worldly teen fantasy object who helps ease Luke out of his virginity, while Janssen seems to be playing against type. Mary Kate Olsen's role as one of Luke's hippie customers is fairly inconsequential, even compared to Jane Adams as another one of Luke's customers.

If you were ever in New York City during the time this movie takes place, you'll probably appreciate its sense of humor, as Levine fills the movie chock-full of '90s nostalgia including a healthy amount of Guiliani-bashing, a favorite pastime of most New Yorkers. He also inserts lots of funny pop culture references from the world of music videos into Luke's fantasies, most of which will probably go over the head of anyone under 20.

Either way, this is a great script that allows Levine to prove his worth as an up 'n' coming filmmaker, even if his use of the same washed-out color scheme as "Mandy Lane" is somewhat distracting and the film sometimes gets bogged down in the amount of dialogue, and its overuse of the same jokes repeatedly to get laughs, whether it's Dr. Squires' quirky behavior or the thought of non-black teens trying to be hip by saying "yo" and "peace" to each other. Despite these minor hindrances, "The Wackness" certainly is one of the more innovative indie comedies in recent memory that's notable for giving Kingsley a chance to have fun in a better comedic role than "You Kill Me" and as a great addition to the resumes of Peck and Thirlby, clearly two young stars of tomorrow.

Rating: 8.5/10

What Just Happened?
Directed by Barry Levinson; Written by Art Linson
Starring Robert DeNiro, Bruce Willis, Sean Penn, Catherine Keener, Stanley Tucci, John Turturro

Art Linson's adaptation of his own autobiographical novel is the kind of industry-centric film that should play well at Sundance due to the amount of L.A. types who come to town, although it might not be something that will appeal to moviegoers who aren't in on some of the in-jokes or references being made, placing it amongst movies like Robert Altman's "The Player," "Swimming with Sharks," "The Big Picture" or "Living in Oblivion," all of which found their audience among hip movie lovers well after any sort of theatrical run.

Directed by Barry Levinson, best known for big budget studio fare like "Rain Man," "Toys," "Sphere" and most recently, the political comedy "Man of the Year," goes the indie route with a "modestly budgeted" (relative to his last few movies) $30 million movie about the film industry, following the day-to-day of a producer (Robert De Niro) based on Linson as he tries to juggle various crises with his dysfunctional family life from two ex-wives.

Although the name of the producer has been changed to "Ben"—as if that might throw us off of the fact that the two main incidents are based on true stories from Linson productions—the movie consists of a number of interlocking stories, the main one involving a temperamental British director upset about the studio wanting to change the ending of his movie, which involves a dog being shot in the head, something that doesn't go over well with the audience at the test screening that opens the movie. The other main crisis involves Bruce Willis having signed on to do one of Ben's movies for $20 million but him vehemently refusing to shave a beard he's grown for six months, despite the studio threatening to pull the plug. (This was based on a similar incident between Linson and Alec Baldwin on "The Edge.") At the same time, he is trying to reconnect with his ex-wife who he thinks is seeing an ambitious screenwriter (Stanley Tucci) and his 17-year-old daughter (Kristen Stewart) seems to be maturing far faster than Ben wants to admit.

This is another great role for De Niro, one that gives him a chance to stretch his comedic muscles but also show a more human side to the Hollywood producer than we usually get to see. Even though he's clearly a powerful man in control, we do get to see some of the vulnerability when he deals with a studio exec played by Catherine Keener and when he backs down in a confrontation with the rampaging Willis—he really likes that beard apparently—because it's so counter to De Niro's own tough guy images. For the most part, De Niro doesn't seem to mind Levinson putting him in embarrassing situations like a situation where we watch him exercise in his skivvies and applying some "Just for Men" to the graying temples. John Turturro is also very funny as Willis' neurotic agent, although most of his humor comes from a recurring stomach ailment that eventually resorts to broader physical comedy at the graveside of a fellow agent.

Levinson tries a few new techniques at keeping things moving despite the repetitive nature of the humor, including many scenes of Ben driving along the L.A. highways cut together in a stylish way. Otherwise, there really isn't that much of a story or a character arc for Ben, because when it's all over, it doesn't seem like there was much of a learning experience for personal growth that some might expect, rather just being a series of vignettes and anecdotes that build up to predictable resolutions with a tacked-on epilogue that tries to show that there are indeed happy endings in Hollywood.

In a world where "Entourage" takes far more biting and clever shots at Hollywood, Levinson and Linson's film seems somewhat dated and redundant, and most of the funniest jokes and references might not have much relevance to non-insiders if the comatose Texan couple sitting next to me at the premiere was any proof.

Rating: 6.5/10

Blind Date
Directed by Stanley Tucci; Written by Stanley Tucci, David Schechter
Starring: Stanley Tucci, Patricia Clarkson, Thijs Romer

Stanley Tucci also stars, directs and co-wrote this dramedy, which acts as the second in a series of English-language remakes of the late Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh's earlier work, the first being Steve Buscemi's "Interview," which played at the Sundance Film Festival last year. Like "Interview," this is a two-hander involving the relationship between two people, set in a swanky bar that belongs to Don, a magician trying to win back his estranged wife (Patricia Clarkson) as the duo play fantasy games, setting up blind dates to try to start afresh, although every time, the issues that ended their marriage come to the forefront.

I'd be lying if I said I completely understood Tucci's fourth film as a director, which isn't as immediate as some of his past work, though it does allow him and Clarkson to show off some of the dramatic muscle that have made them the most respected actors in their field. This quirky material seems like the perfect match for the two of them to explore different characters through this couple's dysfunctional relationship and the games they play to try to save them. A lot of the film is narrated by the couple's daughter who explains how their marriage fell apart between vignettes of the two of them going through the motions of awkward date banter with each new fantasy scenario. Things are revealed in their conversations about what happened, though it's never clear how much is true and how much is made up. While these dialogue-heavy scenes are clearly scripted, the actors do a good job acting as if they're meeting for the first time, which makes the film seem more improvised than it actually is. Either way, she seems to very much in control of the situation, as she walks away whenever their latest encounter falters, leaving him drinking heavily and throwing violent temper tantrums.

While there's a level of serious drama in the reasons why this couple's relationship fell apart, there are also a lot of very funny set-ups like when Don pretends to be a reporter looking for an "aggressive woman" which Clarkson is more than happy to comply by punching him in his stomach. Some of the other bits are just downright strange like a therapy session while riding around in a bumper car.

The film seems so erratic and odd that one has to imagine that Buscemi had better source material to work with, although Tucci tries to make "Blind Date" more like a "real movie", by avoiding the use of handheld cameras so it seems less like a filmed stageplay with the story being conveniently broken up into smaller segments. It's also interesting how Tucci uses silent films as a reference to tell the story whether it's the use of old film techniques to open up on each of the couple's personal ads that introduce the vignettes or a few scenes which are done with music taking the place of the dialogue.

Because Tucci and Clarkson are such skilled actors who are riveting to watch on-screen together, this enigmatic film probably comes across better than it might have otherwise, but aside from a few of the more amusing scenes, it mostly comes across as a dry exercise compared to Buscemi's film, and the ending is so grim that much of the earlier charm might be forgotten.

Rating: 6/10