Like "Definitely, Maybe" from earlier this year, the coming-of-age dramedy "The Wackness" asks us to dig deep within our nostalgia wells and reminisce about the mid-1990s.

Summer of 1994, to be exact. That's when writer-director Jonathan Levine graduated from high school, like his film's sullen hero, Luke Shapiro (Josh Peck), who deals pot from an Italian ices cart in New York City.

Peck, a long way from the Nickelodeon sitcom "Drake & Josh," shows some believable vulnerability beneath the bravado.

In the months before leaving for college, Luke embarks on an unlikely friendship with his aging-hippie shrink, Dr. Squires (Ben Kingsley with stringy hair and a wavering accent). At the same time, he makes the mistake of falling for the doctor's sexually precocious stepdaughter, Stephanie (Olivia Thirlby, Ellen Page's wisecracking sidekick in "Juno"). She's the one who provides the film's title: Since she's perpetually blithe and sunny, she insists she always sees the "dopeness" in things, while low-key Luke always sees the "wackness." Deep, huh?

Levine depicts all of this through film-school tricks such as sped-up and slo-mo sequences and photos that come to life. And because his storytelling techniques are so familiar, it's hard to shake the nagging sensation that Levine has nothing new to say.

We have seen this movie so many times before -- "Igby Goes Down," "Running With Scissors," etc. -- with its disaffected young people and the adults who behave in even more selfish, adolescent fashion. It's not that any of this is offensive from a moral standpoint, mind you. Rather, it's a matter of originality -- or lack thereof.

We know that Luke will get his heart broken and will learn from the experience. That's something to which we can all relate and it's probably the chief source of emotional authenticity in "The Wackness." The one vague wild card is the presence of Mary-Kate Olsen as a second-generation flower child named Union. Her appearance has been much ballyhooed; in reality, she's in just two scenes, one of which requires her to make out with a hammered Kingsley inside the phone booth at a dive bar.

Now that really is wack.

- By Christy Lemire / Associated Press

The Wackness

Rating: 1 and a half stars ( out of four)

Cast: Josh Peck, Ben Kingsley, Method Man, Mary Kate Olsen, Olivia Thirlby, Famke Janssene.

Running time: 101 minutes.

Rating: R; pervasive drug use, language and some sexuality.