How many “The Wackness” trailers can there be? We’re feeling ‘—‘ this close to just being a marketing schill [ed. wait, isn’t that what a movie blog is anyhow?] Anyhow, yeah, yet another, Sony Pictures Classics really want this thing to be the “Juno” of 2008. We will use this opportunity to remind everyone that we exclusively revealed the tracklist to the soundtrack here first last week. The album comes out June 24 via Jive/Zomba. Meanwhile, director Jonathan Levine has been releasing related Wackness mixtapes on Mixwit with songs not featured in the film or disc. What’s the movie about? Check our Summer Movie Preview piece or one of our in-depth pieces on the film.
Levine told Extended Play, that the early ’90s hip-hop music in the film is key to discovering the psychology behind the teen protagonist in the film.
“If you look at Biggie’s [debut album] Ready to Die, that is the ultimate existential dilemma. The guy doesn’t know what to do with his life to be happy. I think that’s something[lead actor Josh Peck’s character] connects with. A Tribe Called Quest is pretty sophisticated music about sophisticated stuff. Or it’s something you put on a party and dance to, but I think that’s fine too. There’s this juxtaposition.There’s this kind of profound existential investigation that [the Notorious BIG was] doing. Then there’s this other check, where it’s just about playing Nintendo and partying. I can’t see how any teenager couldn’t identify with that. It was a revelation for me.”