The Wackness

The Wackness has a scene where a character explains the title during the film. The trailer makes it look like a coming of age film for a kid (Josh Peck as Luke Shapiro) who deals pot in the big city. But it's just as much about the mid-life crisis being faced by stoner psychiatrist Dr. Squires (Ben Kingsley). On a side note: in New York City, which includes Wackness's locations, you can call a number and someone will deliver pot to your door. So it's not a stretch to conceive of a kid who deals out of a portable hot dog stand.
When Luke wants to lose his virginity with Squires' step daughter Stephanie (Olivia Thirlby, last seen in Snow Angles) complications ensue. Fortunately for Luke, even though the good doctor warns that Stephanie will become bored with him, Squires sees the world with a live and let live attitude. That goes a long way in explaining why we see Squires join Luke on a bar binge where Squires makes out with Mary-Kay Olsen (22 passing for 18) in a phone booth and then the duo get busted for tagging walls and possession. The entire series of events takes place in 1994 so there are repeated references to Mayor Giuliani and his fascist policies to clean up the city.
Director Jonathan Levine previously gave us All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, a teen horror flick, which made out on the film festival circuit but didn't really produce a theatrical splash. For The Wackness Levine is interested in playing with tone. All the shrink sessions are shot in low key light with high contrast fill. Intimate scenes, like one played out between Luke and Stephanie, are duo chromatic. Many exterior shots look bleached out, further heightening Levine's art film cred but also making The Wackness feel like a dramedy rather than a stoner comedy.

The X-Files: I Want To Believe

Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) may want to change his name. He's too easy to find it seems and after The X-Files: I Want To Believe a lot of people are going to be demanding answers from him and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), if not series creator Chris Carter. Whoever ultimately takes the blame for such a prosaic episode in the lives of our favorite Federales, one has to wonder why 20th Century Fox didn't spend more money on the production. The result is low caliber.
I Want To Believe takes its title from a poster that hung over Mulder's desk in the series and in this movie on the wall in his obsession room. There's true chemistry between the leads and even in Amanda Peet who plays a Scully-esque FBI agent. There's some cool humor too, like when Mulder looks on his cell phone contact list and the audience sees the name Gillian. Or a moment at the FBI offices when the camera pans to a photo of George W. Bush on the wall (next to J. Edgar Hoover), holds for a second and then the familiar strains of Mark Snow's X Files theme waft through.
But snippets of familiarity only take the audience so far. I Want To Believe seems rushed, and the case, involving body parts harvesting, never veers into the unexplained so much as the unusual. There's a subplot that deals with religion and the belief system in question is more spiritual than paranormal. Maybe some loose ends are tied up but they're certainly not wrapped in a bow. Only a diehard fan will give this X-File a pass. The beard Mulder wears at the beginning looks pretty fake, like it was previously used in Gods and Generals. Can we please close out the 90s now.

Swing Vote mock YouTube vids

Real political candidates aren't the only ones using YouTube to sway political opinion. For the upcoming film Swing Vote, mock Republican and Democratic ad campaigns paint the film's sardonic message. In an effort to court one man's deciding vote the Republican incumbent President Boone (Kelsey Grammer) and his wry advisor (Stanley Tucci) determine that Bud (Kevin Costner), an everyman if there ever was one, leans to the left. The Republicans adopt a friendly gay marriage stance with Boone’s next campaign spot. Meanwhile the Democratic challenger Donald Greenleaf (Dennis Hopper, Costner’s nemesis in Waterworld) takes an anti-abortion position and decries an unguarded border situation because his manager (Nathan Lane) thinks Bud fields to the right.
Asked whether anyone on the production saw parallels with the current Obama/McCain race Costner reminded the film was shot a year ago. “Nobody was calculating in the first place. If this movie could only work in election year then it’d be a failure. It has to work five years from now. For me it had the kind of emotional bottom I like,” Costner told Free Press Houston at a recent junket. A full version of this story appears in Free Press Houston's August 1 issue.