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In other movie viewing news: if you're looking for a counterpart for The Dark Knight, check out The Wackness. It's a small film, but not a quiet one. Set in 1994, the hip-hop soundtrack is, quite frankly, amazing. So it's a small but loud film, if that's even possible. Despite all of the festival buzz that you may or may not have heard, this isn't a film that reinvents the wheel. The Wackness, which stars Josh Peck, Sir Ben Kingsley and Olivia Thrilby, is a coming-of-age story, plain and simple. Luke Shapiro (Peck) graduates from high school at the beginning of the film, then spends his summer trying to occupy his time before attending his never-named safety school.

The film is set in New York, and all of the chatter going on around Shapiro concerns Rudy Giuliani's crackdown on every sort of crime in the city. Shapiro, naturally, is wary, as he sells pot from his water ice cart around the city. While critics of the film think it's nostalgia for the sake of nostalgia, I found the film quite honest -- yes, Shapiro playing some NES Zelda doesn't usher the plot along, but the 10-second scene isn't dishonest. This is Luke Shapiro -- young, bored and trying to pass the time before he hits the streets again.

Much of the attention being given to the film focuses on Ben Kingsley, who plays Shapiro's shrink. In exchange for his services, Kingsley's Dr. Squires asks only for dime and quarter bags, depending on the time. Richard Brody, in The New Yorker, compares Kingsley's work to Alan Arkin's role in Little Miss Sunshine. His point: that Kingsley's gunning for a "wow, what a wacky and infectious role!" Oscar. The comparison, while apt in a very general sense, is wrong -- Kingsley is playing off the beaten path, but he's solid, and kept in check by Peck, who really deserves the praise here. Regardless of what anyone thinks of Kingsley's intentions, The Wackness succeeds because of its honesty. While Kingsley is drawing the press, it's Peck's Shapiro who we identify with. He faces an uncertain future along with his family and his city -- it's a story that we've heard here, but Shapiro is the reason we want to hear it again.