There is a new movie out about white kids in the summer of 1994, trying to find themselves in "The Wackness." And yes, mandatory hip-hop soundtrack is included. As are Adidas shell top sneakers! (really 1994? then I remember, these are white people memories!) I go back and forth between ideas of white authenticity rooted in "blackness" versus the shared American experience (though its not like the majority of Americans willingly admit to the Black experience as being the American experience). And who am I to judge, given that I went through a similar stage, though five years earlier and without the white friends part.
Oh, and without the drug part. See, this is where the white/black divide really comes into play. The point of the story is of a young white kid who sells pot for pocket money. But we all know that he is going to college after the summer, and not about to become the next Pablo Escobar. So it is safe. No one is really going to judge him for his youthful indiscretions. This is not really the case for young black men. We don't have Black coming of age movies where there is that automatic happy ending of a middle-class life. Where we can laugh off the drug dealing. And ten years from now, that white kid uses his drug habit as a way to have "Street Cred." (with who? other white people)
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1994 huh...yeah i can recall the the the post wigger era like it was yesterday. Black authenticity bathed in whiteness is how i recall it. Shit was just plain ugly , uneventful and stressful. And with a movie coming out call "The Wackness" about a white kid selling weed to pay for his therapy sessions is just plain whack! Out of all the shit that happened in 94 this is what cinema has to offer.
some of the events in 94 were earth shattering as in the North Ridge California earthquake that registered a sweet 6.7 killing over 70 people and left close to 27 thousand people homeless. Which also including my dumb ass for moving out there the weekend prior ! This happened 17 days into the new year. Gee..now thats a film "17 DAYS". President Bill "Bubba" Clinton (notice the Black nickname) & Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed the Kremlin Accords, which stop the preprogrammed aiming of nuclear missiles toward each country's targets, and also provide for the dismantling of the nuclear arsenal in Ukraine. This film i choose to call "Bubba Breaks Boris". Lorena Bobbitt is found not guilty by reason of insanity on charges of cutting off her husband John's you know what and how for many years later (and still to this day) Lorena is still the words on many a cheating husbands lips! Spitzer got off fucking easy! Figure Ice skater, Nancy Kerrigan got a beatdown by Tanya Harding and ex Jeff Gilooly and were both found guilty of assault charges. This movie would of done great instead of "Blades of Glory" Kurt Cobain commits suicide and the music industry shuts down and the end of "Grunge" is put to rest. Simply name this film "Grunge of Death" Nelson Mandela officially becomes South Africa's first black President. In actuality, our nation might get a chance at it's first black president...NOT! Baseball's world series is canceled due MLB players strike, an animated comedy called "No Hotdog's for Harry". Woodstock "94 trys to reclaime the original Woodstock "69. This would be a great documentary with both films running back to back. Martin Scorsese should jump on this! Television network, NBC (No Blacks nor Coloreds) sitcom "Frends" premiers which becomes Americas "must watched " television show. I don't recall any episodes where Ross and Chandler went to Jamaica and scored some gonja to puff with their friends. Thats what BET's "Black Friends" sitcom would be like!
So you see, there really was a "Wackness" era but i will check it out for accuracy.
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