"It doesn't work for me, I'm a failure as a pot smoker"

April 20, 2018 9:02 AM

A Brief History Of Stoner Movies

"If a film's on this list it, it falls in one of three buckets: (1), weed's so important to it that you'd mention it in a single-sentence plot summary, (2) it represents a first for weed representation on film, (3) at least one main character is a confirmed smoker. I've also left off all sequels here — sorry, fans of 'Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back,' but you don't need me to tell you that movie's for stoners."

1936 — "Reefer Madness"
1958 — "High School Confidential"
1969 — "Easy Rider"
1972 — "Fritz the Cat"
1978 — "Up in Smoke"
1980 — "9 to 5"
1982 — "Fast Times at Ridgemont High"
1993 — "Dazed and Confused"
1994 — "Clerks"
1995 — "Friday"
1996 — "Bio-Dome"
1998 — "Half Baked"
1998 — "Bongwater"
2000 — "Dude, Where's My Car?"
2000 — "Saving Grace"
2001 — "How High"
2001 — "Super Troopers"
2004 — "Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle"
2007 — "Smiley Face"
2007 — "Super High Me"
2008 — "Pineapple Express"

posted by not_the_water (36 comments total)

No Lebowski? For shame.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 9:12 AM on April 20, 2018 [20 favorites]

If that's the criteria, I can think of a lot of movies that are missing. I'm not a stoner, but for whatever reason I love stoner movies, especially ones that wallow in the surreal. Friday was such a cool movie. They just hung out at home! Smiley Face was great too. A movie about trying to execute a simple and stupid plan that of course goes totally sideways. Anyway, a lot of the most creative (and funny) movies I've ever seen also happened to be stoner movies.
posted by xammerboy at 9:28 AM on April 20, 2018

It's not *all* the movies that fit those criteria; meeting one of those is necessary but not sufficient. They have a narrative for the history of stoner films and they're mentioning films that are important to that narrative.
posted by Four Ds at 9:36 AM on April 20, 2018 [2 favorites]

There is a clear Golden Era.
posted by kevinbelt at 9:37 AM on April 20, 2018

Super Troopers 2 is out today!
posted by elsietheeel at 9:48 AM on April 20, 2018 [2 favorites]

Cheech & Chong were sober the whole time. Movie magic, you guys.
posted by tobascodagama at 9:55 AM on April 20, 2018 [2 favorites]

Withnail & I - if only for the presence of The Camberwell Carrot
History of the World Part One
posted by Kafkaesque at 10:00 AM on April 20, 2018 [8 favorites]

I'm not a stoner, either (unless occasionally using, and really enjoying, weed makes me a stoner), but I do really love stoner movies. They're a very specific kind of "dumb" comedy that really works for me. Basically all of the 90s / early 2000s stoner movies are extremely my jam. The scene in "How High" with John Quincy Adams's finger is ... really something special.
posted by uncleozzy at 10:00 AM on April 20, 2018

Damn, I picked a good time to be a high school stoner. *bong sound* Class of 95! phooooooooooooo
posted by Stonestock Relentless at 10:06 AM on April 20, 2018 [3 favorites]

The Pick of Destiny
posted by Orange Dinosaur Slide at 10:08 AM on April 20, 2018 [2 favorites]

If a film's on this list it, it falls in one of three buckets: (1), weed's so important to it that you'd mention it in a single-sentence plot summary, (2) it represents a first for weed representation on film, (3) at least one main character is a confirmed smoker.

No Animal House? Have you ever looked at your three buckets?
posted by thelonius at 10:16 AM on April 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

shoutout to the parts of the article that talk about the racism behind the criminalization of marijuana and sentencing reform

you were a bad website with a bad community in 2011 but ya have grown up a bit, haven't ya, Digg
posted by runt at 10:17 AM on April 20, 2018 [2 favorites]

Inherent Vice should probably be on this list too.
posted by cazoo at 10:24 AM on April 20, 2018 [4 favorites]

1972 — "Fritz the Cat"
1978 — "Up in Smoke

what the hell happened between 1972 and 1978? If personal memory serves, everybody was probably too high to worry about making movies about it. Or maybe that's just a movie I saw.
posted by philip-random at 10:34 AM on April 20, 2018

As a teenager, I named a cat Fritz. It was YEARS before I knew why some people would be all, "Heh, heh, heh" with a droopy-eyed grin whenever I mentioned him.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 10:49 AM on April 20, 2018

The trailer doesn’t do her justice, but Anna Faris is amazing in Smiley Face. She’s amazing in everything. She should be in all movies. She stole Lost In Translation from Bill Murray with like one scene.

Sidenote: I’d forgotten that Danny Masterson was in it, and that is just...goddammit. You know that technology we’ve used to desicrate the memories of Gene Kelly (and Prince!) by using Technology to just digitally render a performance long after they’ve been dead? Right. Why can we not use the same magic to get rid of rapists? Like you should be able to buy a rapist-free version of any major Hollywood film.
posted by schadenfrau at 10:58 AM on April 20, 2018 [4 favorites]

I'm still disappointed that the movie is called "How High" and not "Higher Education"
posted by ckape at 11:14 AM on April 20, 2018 [2 favorites]

9 to 5 is a stoner movie? I've never seen 9 to 5; I'd thought it was a standard office movie: oppressive boss/office; skilled but frazzled secretary woman somethingsomething revenge.

I may be entirely wrong about this - I assumed the movie tied strongly to the song; just never got around to watching it.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 11:26 AM on April 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

I'm still disappointed that the movie is called "How High" and not "Higher Education"

A quick IMDB search shows another movie by that name in 1988 (and a couple of other similar titles like "Higher Learning" from 1996) but no prior hits for "How High". I'm sure "Higher Education" was their first choice of title but they decided to change it to something more distinct.
posted by tobascodagama at 11:28 AM on April 20, 2018

I loved Smiley Face because it's one of the only stoner movies that is not pretty much entirely populated by dudes. Friday is my alpha and omega of this genre, though, for lo I am Gen X.
posted by soren_lorensen at 11:45 AM on April 20, 2018 [2 favorites]

9 to 5 is a stoner movie?

It's been many, many years since I saw it, but as I recall, the three women have a communal smoking session. Okay, googled it, and apparently we get the line, "We could have ourselves an old fashioned ladies' pot party." It marks a turning point in the story, where the three firmly ally themselves and start working together to fix their workplace situation.

To fit the narrative of the article: here, as decriminalization-advocate Carter is about to be voted out of office, we get marijuana as something that can be indulged in, in moderation, by our solidly virtuous and good-hearted protagonists, and act as a bonding experience. Then Reagan comes in and the public image takes a hard turn.
posted by Four Ds at 12:08 PM on April 20, 2018 [2 favorites]

You know that technology we’ve used to desicrate the memories of Gene Kelly (and Prince!) by using Technology to just digitally render a performance long after they’ve been dead

it's almost like the software for neural net mapping celebrity faces to pornography could be ethically used if only it were not in the hands of creeps
posted by runt at 12:12 PM on April 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

What if ... [sound of bubbling bong] ... [squeaky breath-holding voice] ... every movie was Being John Malkovich? [comically-large exhalation]
posted by uncleozzy at 12:17 PM on April 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

I saw BJMalkovich stoned a few years ago and it gave me the most cognitive dissonance I had ever experienced ever

realized now that was likely due to my being in an anxiety spiral at that time that had landed me in a somewhat agoraphobic state. highly don't recommend for ppl with anxiety issues, lol
posted by runt at 12:21 PM on April 20, 2018 [2 favorites]

Four Ds: "It's been many, many years since I saw it, but as I recall, the three women have a communal smoking session."

Yeah, it's about ten minutes of the movie, as I recall. They get high, and each of them has a fantasy. It's fine, but it always seemed pretty extraneous to me - I would never have considered it a "pot movie."

9 to 5 is great, though, you should see it.
posted by Chrysostom at 1:13 PM on April 20, 2018 [2 favorites]

Not a movie, but one of my favorite stoner vid is an episode of the Sarah Silverman Program (S02E03) during which Brian is so high in a car that he acknowledges "I don't remember how to drive!" and Steven and him burst out laughing.
posted by nicolin at 1:58 PM on April 20, 2018 [2 favorites]

"2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968). The one with the ever-lasting 'Stargate' wormhole.

But 'Dazed...' yeah.
posted by Twang at 2:56 PM on April 20, 2018

Leaves of Grass by Tim Blake Nelson
posted by octothorpe at 3:21 PM on April 20, 2018

I nominate Apocalypse Now. I recall being high myself when I first saw it.
posted by MorgansAmoebas at 3:32 PM on April 20, 2018 [2 favorites]

Does anyone remember the scene in the beginning of "Poltergeist," where the parents are parents are smoking a joint while the Dad is reading a book about Ronald Regan?

That scene encaplusates the the Boomer generation for me. (Though I wouldn't exactly call "Poltergeist" a stoner movie. "Eyes Wide Shut" doesn't exactly qualify either, though one could make the case that it's the stoned conversation the married couple have at the beginning of the movie that sets off the whole paranoid chain of events.)
posted by ethical_caligula at 4:10 PM on April 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

I'd nominate The Breakfast Club for the list. The quest for Bender's weed was central to the story, and the pot-smoking scene was, much like 9 to 5, the turning point where the main characters started to work together.
posted by MrVisible at 6:37 AM on April 21, 2018 [1 favorite]

I'm still disappointed that the movie is called "How High" and not "Higher Education"

'How High,' the song, is much older than 'How High,' the movie (it's also Meth and Redman's first recorded collaboration).

a couple of other similar titles like "Higher Learning" from 1996

I don't think that anyone working on 'How High' wanted to remind people of 'Higher Learning.'
posted by box at 7:40 AM on April 21, 2018 [1 favorite]

I never really thought of Easy Rider as a stoner flick (I mean, it's a cocaine and LSD flick too) but it gets special credit for using real product. Apparently Nicholson smoked a joint during each take of the campfire scene where he delivers the monologue about aliens. (okay, that's a stoner flick scene)
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:11 AM on April 21, 2018 [1 favorite]

'How High,' the song, is much older than 'How High,' the movie (it's also Meth and Redman's first recorded collaboration).

Fair enough. It's just that How High would be the perfect name for a stoner movie at a high school, but it's at college. It'd be like naming a movie Karate Kid when they're actually doing kung fu.
posted by ckape at 10:06 AM on April 21, 2018

"The Harder They Come" (1972) with Jimmy Cliff as an exploited singer turned John Wayne pot gangster in Jamaica is my favorite pot-movie. The album was important in the stateside popularization of reggae.
posted by notmtwain at 3:30 AM on April 22, 2018 [1 favorite]

I don't know if it's a stoner movie, but a friend of mine got super baked and went to see High School High specifically because it had the word "high" in the title twice.
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:07 PM on April 22, 2018