Cinematical is absolutely stoked to have received this exclusive poster for The Wackness (click on the image to enlarge), which just enjoyed its New Yawk premiere at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival earlier this week. Directed by the very talented Jonathan Levine (All the Boys Love Mandy Lane), The Wackness centers on the relationship between a pot dealer with no friends (Josh Peck) and a therapist (Ben Kingsley) on the verge of a mid-life crisis. And did I mention that neither one is getting laid? Set in 1994 New York City, the film just oozes mid-nineties and definitely captures every ounce of what it was like to grow up during that particular time period. Olivia Thirlby, Famke Janssen and Mary-Kate Olsen also star (as the three lovely ladies our two heroes really want to get with).

I managed to catch The Wackness at a screening a few days ago with a young, hip New York crowd who absolutely devoured the flick. It's dope, it's mad funny and it brings just enough nostalgia to help you remember what it was like when you were unlucky and in love with not a clue what to do. Seriously, go see this one with a group of friends and have a blast. The Wackness arrives in theaters on July 3.

The cast and crew of New York, I Love You keeps growing and growing. There's not even enough room on the headline to list all the names that were just added. New York is a collection of short stories, part of a "Cities of Love" anthology that was begun by Paris, je ta'ime. New York will reportedly be followed by Shanghai, and then cities in South America and Africa.

The stories are showcasing an incredible variety of actors and directors. Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson are both making their directing debut, there's a good representation of international talent, and Brett Ratner hasn't been driven away by pitchforks and torches. Variety reported that Orlando Bloom, Olivia Thirlby, Hayden Christensen, and Ethan Hawke had climbed aboard the film. No word on who's segments they will appear in yet -- but a far better choice for Bloom's career than Prince of Persia, wouldn't you say?

Known in some circles as "that movie where Sir Ben Kingsley hooks up with Mary-Kate Olsen," The Wackness premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival where it was met with an unbelievable online reception. Just about everyone I spoke to fell in love with this quirky drug-related dramedy from director Jonathan Levine (All the Boys Love Mandy Lane). While I didn't get the chance to see it (our own Scott Weinberg did), these good vibes have me all antsy to check out The Wackness when it hits the Tribeca Film Festival later this month.

Here's a bit from the synopsis: "... Luke (Josh Peck) is a socially uncomfortable teenage pot dealer with no friends, issues with his parents, and a whopping lack of confidence with girls. He trades weed for sessions with his therapist, Dr. Squires (Sir Ben Kingsley), whose much-younger wife (Famke Janssen) is slipping away from him. Squires, a drug-addled shrink with a hairline retreating to the back of his neck and a state of mind slouching back to adolescence, is an unlikely role model-but the two of them forge a friendship based on a mutual need: neither one is getting laid."

Check out both exclusive photos (including a larger version of the image above) from the film in the gallery below. The Wackness arrives in theaters on July 3rd. (And is it me, or does Kingsley have a little Keitel going on in that pic?)

Sometimes when I see a bit of casting news, I imagine a film not with the cast of actors, but with their previous roles. So, imagine what kind of ensemble can be put together with the upcoming romcom The Dream of the Romans. Variety reports that Jeff Daniels, Lauren Graham, Lou Taylor Pucci, Olivia Thirlby, and Kat Dennings have signed on for roles in the film, which will be the feature debut of writer/director John Hindman.

Romans stars Daniels as some sort of Rhonda Byrne -- a reclusive author who penned a book that "redefined spirituality for a generation." Unfortunately, his writing interferes with his desire to be left alone as many of his fans hunt him down, convinced that "he has all the answers." Two of them are Graham, who plays a struggling single mum, and Pucci, who plays a guy straight out of rehab. This is a romantic comedy, so most likely Ms. Gilmore will get to fall for Mr. Berkman. Or, maybe the backbone-lacking jerk from Chumscrubber will get some romance with Juno's friend or the 40-year-old virgin's stepdaughter.

iDeal's (the film's financer) Jana Edelbaum says: "This is a sparking piece of writing with vivid, wonderful characters." At the very least, it looks like a fresh jump into romcom territory, rather than the usual retread. The project just kicked off production in Philly.

With each picture since his 2000 debut George Washington, David Gordon Green has taken at least a small step backward. That gradual regression becomes a full-fledged precipitous decline with Snow Angels, a film in which the director (working from a novel by Stewart O'Nan) flails about in search of poetry, and comes up with only trivial stylistic flourishes that compound his story's overwrought faux-naturalism. Considering the lyrical grace of his heralded first feature, Green's devolution from one of American cinema's most promising talents to his current status as just another middling indie lightweight is tough to fathom. Yet with his latest, Green misses the mark in so many respects -- from a multi-strand plot devoid of insight, to performances that are generally overcooked, to a mise-en-scène that comes up largely empty in the department of inspired grace and beauty -- that it makes one wonder if his upcoming foray into director-for-hire work (with this summer's raunchy stoner comedy The Pineapple Express) isn't a shrewd attempt to escape his own increasingly faulty auteurist instincts.

After screening at Sundance last year, a trailer for Snow Angels has finally hit the net, which you can check out above. The latest from indie filmmaker David Gordon Green, Angels follows his small-town formula, but this time, with dueling stories of happiness and darkness. On the one hand, there's the burgeoning love story between Michael Angarano (the cutie from flicks like Almost Famous and Sky High) and Olivia Thirlby (who you might recognize as Juno's helpful best friend). On the other, there's a complicated familial story focusing on Kate Beckinsale, her estranged husband Sam Rockwell, and their young daughter. Making the whole deal even more tasty -- there's also the likes of Griffin Dunne, Amy Sedaris, and Nicky Katt.

If the trailer is any indication of the film, it should be a great cinematic experience. (But be warned: it does give a lot of detail into the film, as many trailers love to do.) However, if you need more of a reason to go see it, you can check out James Rocchi's glowing review from Sundance, as well as his interview with Green. On the flipside, you can check out Kevin Kelly's review, which was a bit less praising.

[via Empire]

I usually attend four or five film festivals a year, and my assignments usually fall firmly within the 'genre' category -- especially the scary stuff. If it's a horror movie, a blood-soaked action-fest, a sci-fi thriller or a Japanese story about creepy undead children -- that's the stuff I'm assigned first. So how do we explain this weird aberration? There were several cool horror flicks at Sundance '07, and yet my favorite film (by far) was a sweet little chick flick called Waitress. And then today, after enjoying some solid old-school splatter from Dario Argento AND Stuart Gordon, I was most blown away by an off-kilter, low-key and wonderfully original comedy called Juno.

Sometimes (and particularly at film festivals) you like a movie so much that you want to get the word out there as soon as possible -- but with time being very tight you don't really have the time to give a film the thousand-word love letter it deserves. And so, because I'm as busy as I am lazy, I'll give you a surface-level plot synopsis and then just dole out some bullet points on Juno's most excellent components.

The story centers on an acerbic-yet-lovable 16-year-old (yes, named Juno) who gets knocked up by her boyfriend and then decides to follow through with the pregnancy and give the infant to a loving yuppie couple who can't have a baby of their own. That's pretty much it, god bless the whip-smart, snarky and powerfully funny screenplay by blogger / author / former stripper Diablo Cody.

Ben Kingsley, Mary-Kate Olsen, and Method Man. For years, Hollywood has been trying to get these three in a picture together. It's a perfect fit -- Sir Ben Kingsley is one of the most respected actors in the game, a three-time Academy Award nominee and winner of the 1983 Best Actor Oscar for his legendary performance in Gandhi. Two-time Razzie Award nominee Mary-Kate Olsen lit up television screens with her gritty, uncompromising work in 1999's You're Invited to Mary-Kate and Ashley's Fashion Party. Method Man...smokes a lot of weed. And these three dynamos are joining forces, for what I think it's safe to say will be the one and only time, on a new movie called The Wackness.

So what in God's name is The Wackness? The comedy, currently filming in New York, takes place in 1994 (guess it's a period piece), and according to Variety the film will be about "a troubled teenage drug dealer and a drug-addled psychiatrist." The drug dealer trades marijuana for therapy sessions, falls in love with the psychiatrist's daughter, and you've got yourself a movie! I would imagine Kingsley plays the psychiatrist, but that's just speculation. Rounding out this bizarre cast are Josh Peck (star of Nickelodeon's Drake and Josh, as well as Mean Creek, which I loved), Famke Janssen (probably best known as Jean Grey in the X-Men series), and Olivia Thirlby (of United 93 and NBC's failed drama Kidnapped). The film was written and is being directed by Jonathan Levine, who got a lot of notice with his much-delayed horror flick All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (read James' positive review here). I don't even know what to expect with this cast, but I'm definitely intrigued.