The Wackness

7/10. Funny, ‘blasphemous’ and affecting. This coming-of-age story is nicely done and has some very sharp moments. The hero grows on us throughout the film largely thanks to his (for want of a better term) simple decency. (This runs deep. Even his dope dealing has a heavy air of decent all-American/Puritan capitalism about it: he’s doing to help his mum and dad and saving every penny. Plus unlike Olivia who just hangs around all summer, he’s working – and working hard). Despite its final arrival at a (fairly) feel-good ending, the strongest feature of the film it its portrait, most starkly presented by Dr Squires, of a culture utterly disconnected, lost in a lonely hell of priapism, drugs (legal and illegal), and dysfunctional relationships.