It's the summer of 1994, and the streets of New York are pulsing with hip-hop. Set against this backdrop, a lonely teenager named Luke Shapiro spends his last summer before university selling marijuana throughout New York City, trading it with his unorthodox psychotherapist for treatment, while having a crush on his stepdaughter.
Friendship, love, and coming of age in New York City, summer of 1994. Luke Shapiro has just graduated from high school, sells marijuana, and trades pot for therapy from a psychologist, Dr. Jeffrey Squires. Luke is attracted to a classmate, Stephanie, who's out of his league and Squires' step-daughter. By July, he's hanging out with Stephanie, taking her on his rounds selling pot out of an ice-cream pushcart. Then things take a turn. In the background, Squires and his wife as well as Luke's parents are having their troubles.—<[email protected]>
Summer, 1994, New York City. Depressed in part because of a dysfunctional home life the result of money problems and feeling like a loser, Luke Shapiro, a drug dealer who has just graduated from high school, has for the last several months bartered weed for the services of therapist Dr. Jeff Squires, an aging hippie, in his want to talk to somebody, anybody who will listen, in a general way. Dr. Squires is the stepfather of the object of Luke's masturbatory fantasies, classmate Stephanie Squires, who sees Luke no more than a casual acquaintance. She knows about the dealer/buyer relationship between Luke and her stepfather, but not the therapy sessions, while Dr. Squires has no idea of Luke's romantic interest in Stephanie. With all their respective friends away for the summer, Stephanie suggests to Luke that they hang out together for the summer as friends. Concurrently, Luke and Dr. Squires truly do become more like friends, constantly high ones, than therapist/patient. That friendship becomes complicated not only as Luke needs advice on how to navigate the fantasy of Stephanie as his girlfriend into potential reality without divulging to Dr. Squires it is Stephanie about who he is talking, but also as Dr. Squires unburdens himself to Luke about his own problems, such as the unsatisfying life that his marriage to Stephanie's mother has become. Specifically with Luke and Stephanie, a question becomes: if Luke is able to get his wish of Stephanie as his girlfriend, what will happen come September when their pre-summer friends return and as they all move onto the next phase of their lives post-high school.—Huggo
For psychoanalyst Dr. Jeffrey Squires (Ben Kingsley) his sessions with High-School marijuana dealer Luke Shapiro (Josh Peck) ensure a regular supply of pot to the good doctor. Many of Luke's concerns center on growing pains such as finding a girl, and dealing with his parents who are mismanaging their money and losing their upper East-side New York apartment. Squires tells the young Luke to have fun with his youth, find a girl to have a fling with and enjoy the years before he goes to college. To compensate Luke retreats into his own world and deals more pot to rich party kids to earn cash for college.
When by chance he meets Dr. Squire's stepdaughter Stephanie (Olivia Thirlby) it seems the two could have a beautiful future together. But Dr. Squires has his own problems of incompatibility with his younger trophy wife Kristin (Famke Janssen). As Luke and Stephanie grow closer, the young man gets advice on how to woo her and Squires, unaware that it is his stepdaughter, goes through a menu of possible ways for Luke to bed the young woman. Luke subconsciously offers Dr. Squires a way to re-experience his own adolescence and during an all-night party the two find themselves arrested for disorderly conduct. Luke returns home to find that he and his parents have been evicted from their house and must move to New Jersey but he and Stephanie go away to consummate their relationship as Dr. Squires and Kristin come together to re-bond their marriage. When things fall apart Luke finds that he has become the one to console the older Dr. Squires in a bitter sweet life lesson.
It's the summer of 1994, and the streets of New York are pulsing with hip hop and wafting with the sweet aroma of marijuana. The newly-inaugurated mayor, Rudolph Giuliani, is only beginning to implement his anti-fun initiatives against crimes like noisy portable radio, graffiti and public drunkenness.
