Just got back from seeing The Wackness. It had its moments. The most surprising thing, though, was hearing "Exit Lines" by Vomit Launch on the soundtrack. All movies would be vastly improved by adding a Vomit Launch song to the score, when you get right down to it.
If great forgotten indie bands of the 80s and 90s are the next vein to be mined for movie soundtrack material, I can think of another one for you. Aspiring directors, have your people call my people. Ciao!
3 comments:
I am left inspired for the complex humanity revealed in the course of this film. The beauty and innocence of awakening presence continually arriving "in the moment" for the protagonist, Shapiro, quickened similar human responses in others, causing actions, reactions both verbal and non verbal, but conclusively demonstrating the effects of being present and telling it real for all concerned.
Kudos for the sensitivity of the director to capture the writer's intention to show us complex characters that defy stereotyping, and provide some slice of life on the ability for us to relate in multicultural, multi-aged, and multi-sexual experiences and still land in tender relationships that generate meaning.
Films like this provide breathing room for both young and old, and all cultures alike to notice what happens when people communicate in present terms, in present conditions, accepting and participating in ways that give one experience and knowledge about the freedom to be real.
It was cool that there were no heroes or villains in the movie whatsoever. Everyone had their flaws, their dignity, and more than one side to them. That's not a common thing in the film biz.
I liked the Eleanor character too. She could have starred in her own movie. A female musician, depressed by the breakup of her almost-successful band, now insecure, neurotic, and escaping with copious quantities of weed, who only really needed a little encouragement and someone who could SEE her. She felt like a real person, which is the most you could ask for in a fictional character.
And I should be working right now. Enough of this for the moment. Oh, Method Man was cool too. Lots of presence, and a perfectly mellifluous Jamaican accent.
I've seen other comments, and they do have a point, that for a movie that's so informed by hip-hop culture, right down to the slang of its title, there is a strange shortage of...black people. (Bar the dope connections. Yes, I see we are teetering on the edge of some unpleasant stereotypes here...)
All true enough, but who are we kidding, when at this point, hip-hop is mainstream culture, period? You could have made this movie with, say, an all-Filipino cast and it would've been equally realistic. And coming up from the original punk generation, I have a hard time sympathizing too much with those who sit on the sidelines complaining about other people's art. Don't like how your group is portrayed? Quit whining and get yourself a fucking camera already! Let 100 flowers bloom.
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