Hip-hop gets top billing in Jonathan Levine's 'The Wackness'

Directors have different theories on the use of pop music in a film. But Jonathan Levine, whose hip-hop infused coming-of-age film "The Wackness" will be released July 3, gets right to the point.

"I use music a lot. It’s a cheap, easy way for me to look good," he told Extended Play.

Levine's joking, but he's learned quickly that a clever use of music could do wonder's for a film's buzz. Heading into Sundance earlier this year, "The Wackness" garnered plenty of attention for casting Mary-Kate Olsen as a hippie dope fiend. Heading out of the fest, however, it was the film's heavy use of mid-'90s rap that started to take top billing.

After a Sundance screening, The Envelope wrote of "The Wackness:" "The film's main character Luke (Josh Peck) is a straight-up 1994 hip-hop head and the film is laced with tracks that would make Hot 97's Funkmaster Flex and Angie Martinez proud."

"The Wackness" quickly secured distribution via Sony Pictures Classics and took home the Sundance audience award. News of a soundtrack soon surfaced, and earlier this week, the film's Facebook page unveiled a music widget that contains songs from the mid-'90s period in which "The Wackness" is set.

Even the film's promotional materials contain detailed notes on the songs used in the film, which range from DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince's cooly laid-back "Summertime" to the Lou Reed-sampling "Can I Kick It?" from the A Tribe Called Quest. Other songs in the film include R. Kelly's "Bump & Grind," Notorious B.I.G.'s "The What" and "The World Is Yours" from Nas.

Levine said he wrote the music into the script, and with the help of his production team and music supervisor, Jim Black, he was able to secure a deal for a soundtrack months before taking the film to Sundance. Some well-connected friends put Levine in touch with Sony BMG's Jive Records, and the label will release a 13-song soundtrack on June 24.

"The Wackness," which also stars Sir Ben Kingsley as an aging, rich, boomer who befriends Peck's teenage Luke, is primarily a coming-of-age film, but the film's adults have as much, if not more, to learn. The middle-class Luke spends his final summer before college selling dope and getting his heart broken, while Kingsley's psychiatrist Dr. Squires peddles antidepressants and longs for the counterculture idealism of the 1960s.

As Squires misses his youth, Luke frets of his impending adultdom, and the two form an unlikely, cross-generational bond. The film is littered with cultural touch points -- characters reference Kurt Cobain and "Beverly Hills, 90210" -- and while the film bleeds of 1994, "The Wackness" ultimately reveals that there isn't much of a gap between baby boomers and Generation X, at least in maturity level.

Levine, whose first film was "All the Boys Love Mandy Lane," took a few minutes this week to discuss the film's use of music and why hip-hop, and the mid-'90s, are integral to the story.

So when exactly did Jive get involved, and how did that change/shape things?

They got involved a couple months before Sundance. Things changed in that we could focus on getting their artists. They have the Jive catalog, which is pretty much the best stuff from the era. We focused on getting as much Jive stuff as possible, like KRS-One, [Wu-Tang Clan member] Raekwon and Nas. It was very helpful. It gave us a focus, since there’s so much different stuff in that era.

Talk a little bit about why that era was so important to you, in particular 1994.

For me it was two-fold. First off, I saw a great deal of authenticity in the story. If I were to try to write kids today, it would have come off as disingenuous. In order to get the authenticity that I value so much, I needed to go back to 1994. That was the year I graduated high school.

Beyond that, I think there’s a rich tradition of movies that focus on the high school years of a decade or two decades ago. We wanted to follow in that tradition and have people feel the same nostalgia for that time that I was feeling when I was writing it … When you can be one of the first people to look back at a time -- remember this music and remember what people were wearing -– you just get this rich wellspring of goodwill. People like to remember these times.

You're dealing with some prime catalog, such as Notorious B.I.G.'s "The What." Was it tough to secure these tracks?

We reached out to the Biggie estate early and were able to clear it. But my editor was the one who put A Tribe Called Quest in the movie, and I said you guys are all nuts. I didn’t think I could get a Tribe Called Quest song with a Lou Reed sample, but we were.

It was crazy. But I think the great thing about it is that not a lot of people are using this type of music. Hopefully, this will be the first of many movies that license early ‘90s hip-hop. I don’t think there was much demand for it, and people were just happy to contribute their songs to a movie. Also, we got [Sony BMG] behind us, and they were able to hook us up.

What was some music you couldn’t get in?

Well, there was a lot of bad stuff from the era that I couldn’t get in. I wanted a lot of bad rock. I wanted the Counting Crows or Hootie and the Blowfish. But there's no scene I could put it behind. I also wanted some R&B, like Mary J. Blige and TLC, but that stuff was much more expensive than the hip-hop. And I had some anthemic ‘90s rock, like something from Weezer, Radiohead’s ‘The Bends’ and the Smashing Pumpkins’ ‘Siamese Dream,’ but the movie is only an hour and a half. There was no time.

One of the first musical nods in the film is a reference to the death of Kurt Cobain. While you don’t really hear any rock in 'The Wackness,' there's still that generational marker.

Yeah, there’s a scene where Dr. Squires is doing a lot of drugs, and originally, that was set to Nirvana’s ‘Lithium.’ We didn’t even bother. I don’t know what getting a Nirvana song entails. I think we would have had to screen it for Courtney Love and then pay a lot of money. I don’t know -- we just figured it wasn’t going to happen.

A Tribe Called Quest's "Can I Kick It" plays such an integral part in the film. It connects a '60s/'70s icon in Lou Reed to what was then a rising hip-hop act and mirrors the generational gaps you're trying to close.

For me, it’s about the two [characters] connecting over this music, but it’s also about the restlessness and social provocation that the music inherently has. I think that’s what the two of them identify with. For the Kingsley character, this was exemplified in the music of the late ‘60s/early ‘70s, and I think he sees some sort of commonality with the music of Luke’s childhood. I think having that Lou Reed sample brings everything full circle.

The way you use music draws parallels between generations. What does "The Wackness" say about the continuing influence of baby boomer culture?

I don’t think there’s any evaluative judgment on anything. If there is, that’s in spite of me, and that’s my internal subconscious welling up. We very much tried not to kind of judge or value it. I guess for me, a lot of it is about how you become adult and not lose that idealism, whether that idealism is grounded in anything or not. I think there’s something about the ‘60s counterculture and the hip-hop subculture. How do you maintain that as life continues to throw reality in your face? How do you keep your soul and your spirit? I don’t think a lot of the adult characters do it very well, but I don’t think most people do.

Luke's family is going through a tough time in the film, but he's still a middle-class, slacker white kid. What about hip-hop speaks to him over, say, the grunge music of the era?

Obviously, the specific subject matter was not anything he knew anything about. But 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 Luke connects with.

But gangster is a misnomer. 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 Biggie is 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.

Photos: Sony Pictures Classic