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Late yesterday afternoon our friends at Cinematical debuted the first official poster for one of my favorite films of 2008 thus far, The Wackness. The poster, which is eerily similar to the teaser poster we debuted while at Sundance, in that it looks like a rather uninteresting and amateurish Photoshop job, is the first to be released by Sony Pictures Classics, the studio that will ultimately be responsible for this film’s success or failure. I know it sounds like I am being harsh, but I’ve already spoken out about this issue — Sony Pictures Classics doesn’t know what to do with what they have, and it could cost this film its much deserved audience. Stand by and let that happen is something I just cannot do.

For your reference, here is the poster in question:

Having seen the poster above, are you any more aware of what this movie is about than you were before? Are you drawn to it at all, despite not being very familiar with it? My best guess is that the answer to both of those questions is no.

I will say this — the effort is there — this poster is a lot better than the previously released trailers, but we still aren’t there yet. There are countless layers to this movie that make it a rare gem of independent cinema, and until SPC figures it out and brings its best qualities forward in the marketing campaign, I will continue to criticize. The fact still remains though, that you should see this movie when it hits theaters on July 3rd. Good marketing, bad marketing, none of that matters if you just take my advice.