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from the issue of August 21, 2008
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Sundance award winner plays the Ross
The offbeat coming-of-age movie "The Wackness" - winner of the 2008 Sundance Audience Award - is playing through Aug. 28 at the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center.
In "The Wackness," it's the summer of 1994, and the streets of New York are pulsing with hip hop. The newly inaugurated mayor, Rudolph Giuliani, is only beginning to implement his anti-fun initiatives against "crimes" like noisy portable radio, graffiti and public drunkenness.
Two people, however, are missing out on the excitement.
Luke (Josh Peck) is a socially uncomfortable teenage pot dealer with no friends, issues with his parents, and a whopping lack of confidence with girls. He trades weed for sessions with his therapist, Dr. Squires (Sir Ben Kingsley), whose much-younger wife (Famke Janssen) is slipping away from him.
Squires, a drug-addled shrink with a state of mind sliding back to adolescence, is an unlikely role model - but Squires and Luke forge a friendship based on a mutual need. The intergenerational duo set off on a crawl that takes them across New York City, where they encounter several of Luke's "business associates," including a Phish-following dreadlocked pixie (Mary-Kate Olsen), a New Wave, keyboard-playing one-hit-wonder (Jane Adams), and Luke's supplier (Method Man).
Luke has long had an aching crush on Squires' way-out-of-his-league stepdaughter, Stephanie (Olivia Thirlby), and is stunned at his good luck when she returns his affections. Luke's innocent first love experience with Stephanie becomes a life lesson that sets him on the pathway toward adulthood. And when Squires breaks down, it is up to the younger man to throw the older one a lifeline.
Directed by Jonathan Levine, "The Wackness" is rated R for pervasive drug use, language and some sexuality.
For more information, including show times, go to www.theross.org or call the film information line at 472-5353.
Also @ the Ross
'The Fall' (not rated)
Showing through Aug. 28
Los Angeles, circa 1920s, an immigrant girl (Catinca Untaru) finds herself in a hospital recovering from a fall. She strikes up a friendship with a bedridden man (Lee Pace) who captivates her with a whimsical story that removes her far from the hospital doldrums into the exotic landscapes of her imagination. Making sure he keeps the girl interested in the story he interweaves her family and people she likes from the hospital into his tale.
GO TO: ISSUE OF AUGUST 21
ARTS HEADLINES FOR AUGUST 21
Great Plains gallery hosts Farrell's photo exhibition
American Life in Poetry
'Celebration Threads' gala is Aug. 24
Cornhusker Marching Band event is Aug. 22
GETTING READY
Kendall's 'Purpose of Labor' opens Aug. 26
Multi-media exhibit featured at Sheldon
Sundance award winner plays the Ross
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