As I was on my way to the New Orleans airport yesterday, I got an email that made me more excited than it probably should have. It also may have marked me as an actual The Wackness geek, since I recognized the sender’s name – Luke Shapiro – immediately as the lead character from that film. I imagine that if I hadn’t recognized the name I would have deleted the thing post haste, assuming it was spam. Here’s the text:
Yo, yo, yo, check out this video. I found it in the archives. My doorman and super are crazy dope. Stay tuned for more episodes of my flyness.
I guess the good news here is that Luke Shapiro is still running around in 2008 (the film is set in 94) and hasn’t changed all that much. The less good news is that while this video is cute, it really doesn’t capture the feel or tone of the movie at all. I hope that this brings the movie to people’s attention, but if they’re expecting some endless wigger vamp or tons of pot jokes or, judging by the viral video, Napoleon Dynamite with a Wu Tang soundtrack, they’ll be disappointed. The Wackness is a great film, and a lot of what makes it work is the relationship between Luke and his therapist (and weed customer), played by Sir Ben Kingsley. Be sure to see The Wackness when it opens in July. In the meantime, here’s the video: