BLU-RAY REVIEW

Wackness, The

Featured In Issue 138, January/February 2009

Picture5
SoundNR
WSR Score4.5
Basic Information on new release titles is posted as soon as titles are announced. Once reviewed, additional data is added to the database.
(Studio/Distributor):
Sony Pictures Classics
(Catalog Number):
29215
(MPAA Rating):
R
(Rating Reason):
Pervasive drug use, language and some sexkuality
(Retail Price):
$39.95
(Disc Type):
Single Side, Dual Layer (BD-50)
(Widescreen Edition):
Yes
(Full Screen Edition):
No
(Running Time In Minutes):
99
(Color Type):
Color
(Chaptered/Scene Access):
Yes
(Closed Captioned):
Yes
(Regional Coding):
A
(Theatrical Year):
2008
(Theatrical Release):
Yes
(Direct-To-Video Release):
No
(Disc Release Date):
01/06/08
(THX® Digitally Mastered):
No
(Director):
Jonathan Levine
(Screenplay/Written By):
(Story):
(Music):
(Director Of Photography):
(Production Designer):
(Visual Effects):
(Costume Designer):
(Editor):
(Supervising Sound Editors):
(Re-Recording Mixers):
(Executive Producers):
(Co-Producers):
(Producers):
(Academy Awards):
(Principal Photography):
(Theatrical Aspect Ratio):
(Measured Disc Aspect Ratio):
(Disc Soundtrack):
Dolby TrueHD 5.1
(Theatrical Sound):
(Theatrical Re-Issue Soundtrack):
(DTS Bit Rate):
(Dolby Digital Bit Rate):
(Additional Languages):
(French Language):
(Spanish Language):
(Chinese Language):
(Subtitles):
(Cantonese Language):
(Mandarin Language):
(Japanese Language):
(Italian Language):
(German Language):
(Portuguese Language):

Sundance Film Festival Audience Award winner The Wackness is a new classic coming-of-age story about unorthodox psychiatrist Dr. Squires (Kingsley) and his 17-year-old patient Luke Shapiro (Peck), and their relationship during his last summer in New York City before he goes off to college. One deals drugs and the other takes them. Luke not only doles out weed to his doctor in exchange for his services but also dates his daughter (Thirlby), who he falls in love with. Amidst the insufferable summer sun, between the graffiti, drug pushers, and prostitutes of Times Square, Luke's life changes form. It builds up and breaks down as he slowly awakens to the man he is to become, and ironically, in the process, Dr. Squires does some growing up as well. (Gary Reber)

Special features include four deleted scenes (SD 5:12); commentary with Actor Josh Peck and Director Jonathan Levine; The Luke Shapiro Dope Show, featuring Peck as Luke Shapiro starring in his own local cable show (SD 7:37); Keeping It Real: A Day In The Life Of Writer/Director Jonathan Levine, with the director on his day the film premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival (SD 7:45); Time In A Bottle, which is a behind-the scenes look at the filming of The Wackness (SD 17:39); and original trailers.

The 1080p AVC 2.35:1 picture quality is fabulous. The color palette is subdued, with a slight sepia tone, yet exhibits naturalness. Resolution is superb, with fine details and textures revealed. There is virtually no noise, and no edge enhancement or other artifacts to mar the extremely pristine imagery. Contrast is excellent as well, with deep blacks and finely defined shadow delineation. Fleshtones appear perfectly natural, even with the subdued color. This is a beautiful picture, with wonderful cinematography, and is reference quality. (Gary Reber)

The Dolby® TrueHD 5.1-channel soundtrack is well recorded, with dialogue that sounds spatially integrated. Surround envelopment is pretty much limited to the music and occasional directional effects. The music score is hip-hop/rap, and at times the surrounds project phantoms at precise center back and overhead positions, as well as precise front center channel phantom positions. Occasionally, the surrounds are aggressively directionalized, and bass extension is deep. Fidelity is always excellent and clean sounding. During interior scenes, the soundtrack collapses to monaural with no, or very subtle, spatial support for the dialogue channel from the stereo channels, yet room ambiance is effectively projected in the monaural presentation. While this is not a rip-roaring sonic experience, one can appreciate the subtle qualities that it projects and the perfect support for the storytelling. (Gary Reber)