Looking at movies and smoking cigarettes weed go with each other like peanut butter and jelly, toddlers and tiaras, pussy and Patron. It’s a basic blend for a reason! But when it comes to basically portraying weed, filmmakers are likely to drop flat, subbing in 2D stereotypes for nuanced depictions of the world’s most well-known “illicit” drug and the people who consume it.
For the reason that I’m bothersome, I have a difficult time suspending my disbelief by way of apparent mischaracterizations of a drug that so numerous of us know so properly. Sorry, you ripped the bong once and experienced entire auditory and visual hallucinations that led to you hoping to consume your roommate desert-island type? This isn’t middle school overall health course: I know, and you know that I know, that shit is fake as hell.
My personal preferred stoner character, the one particular I experience is most genuine-to-life, is Anna Faris’s deliciously vacant Jane in Smiley Deal with, a motion picture that captures particularly what it feels like to get as well high on a working day when you have a whole lot of errands to operate. She’s paranoid, disoriented, a minor much less eloquent than she thinks she is—to which I say, oh my God saaaaaame. The portrayal, dare I say… strike.
To find more correct-to-lifestyle pot smokers on the huge display, I requested a couple of the coolest, stoniest people I could consider of about their consider on stoner cinema. There is Rachel Wolfson, comic and official Jackass. Beca Grimm, founder of feminist hashish community Graze Club. Zach Harris, cannabis writer and previous budtender. Jessamyn Stanley, yoga teacher and cannabis justice/human body positivity advocate. Trey Smith, VICE producer and our resident awesome guy. And writer/editor Sara David. Here’s what they had to say.
What is your favorite piece of stoner cinema and why?
Harris: I have a few. Sean Penn as Spicoli in Quickly Instances at Ridgemont High—the complete level of placing weed into a film is to make it a little absurd, drag it to an extraordinary. When he smacks his head with the slip-on Vans and says, “Dude, which is my cranium,” which is the very best stoner line of any motion picture. Brad Pitt in Legitimate Romance is also truly superior in that exact common way that he’s there just to be stoned and there is no other character [development].
On the other stop of the spectrum, there is a character in that Rian Johnson film Brick, this mob enforcer character who is constantly using tobacco what you believe are cigarettes all over the complete motion picture. And then at the end, it truly is like one particular of people more twists that he is like, “Oh, no, I never smoke cigarettes.” And it can be just like, he was smoking weed the total time, but you hardly ever recognized it or realized it. I imagined that was a good way to do it, in which it really is like, Oh, yeah, people today just smoke weed all the time and you don’t definitely detect.
Wolfson: I like the scene in Knocked Up when Seth Rogen is chatting to his dad, Harold Ramis, and his dad says, ‘If it grows in the ground, it is most likely Okay.’ I just believed that was these a great, delicate second concerning father and son—I in no way forgot about it. And then there’s however that ingredient in the movie of the dumb stoner when the earthquake occurs and the 1st issue Seth Rogan grabs is his bong, not his expecting girlfriend. But I Might Demolish You was a person of the very first situations weed was portrayed in a relatable way for me—the major character Arabella makes use of it to aid her creatively, to destress and take pleasure in her close friends. I liked how weed was represented and how she rolled a joint. Then, way earlier, Weeds was neat. I beloved that it existed and had a highly effective woman lead, a suburban soccer mom—that does exist, and in this article it is!
Grimm: Truly, Melanie in Jackie Brown is dwelling my aspiration lifetime: camped on the sofa in a bikini with a bong watching Tv set, even while which is a trope stoners have been combating for permanently, the complete staying lazy and sofa-locked thing.
I am not trying to endorse Woody Allen here—he’s a fucking monster—but Diane Keaton’s eponymous character in Annie Hall is probably the most exact of what I know stoner lifestyle to be. She smokes to relax, to make discussion and intercourse far better. It is really a aspect of Annie’s regular—if not daily—life, but not what I might simply call a defining characteristic. Primarily now, weed has long gone so mainstream that it appears to be lazy if not just as well broad to root one’s personality in figuring out as a “pothead.” Weed, to me, is an improvement, a reward. It really is additional glitter and pizazz (and Okay, also medicine), not the only matter there is.
Stanley: The scene on Atlanta, Year 2 Ep. 4, when Donald Glover & Zazie Beetz’s people are cigarette smoking weed in their car or truck. No major fuss, just medicating en route to their place. I don’t even know if the reality that they have been smoking cigarettes weed is at any time in fact pointed out. That is the actuality of smoking weed—it’s just not that major a offer, and all people does it all the time. I’m speaking hyperbolically but you know what I necessarily mean: Consuming hashish is unbelievably ordinary and it’s time we developed further than these dated stereotypes of what it usually means to be a stoner.
I want to look at items that help me love what I really like most about currently being stoned: the sensation of staying chill, all set to indulge in pleasure, and prepared to construct on absurdist humor and laugh right up until I cry. – Sara David
Smith: The initially stoner character I truly appreciated was when I was very little. I didn’t know he was large all the time, but I knew some thing was up: Bobby from A Goofy Motion picture, Max’s friend. He was just a amazing dude! He had a awesome haircut and cool glasses, but he was certainly on a further level than all people else was. He was often down to assistance out his buddies and he just experienced a whole lot of imagination—he made a fucking historical monument soon after cheese! Following I obtained more mature, I understood what was up. My girlfriend pointed out that I use the similar type of sunglasses, so, you know, there is a minor unconscious factor there far too.
David: When I am stoned, I will not want to watch items about weed. I never even want to view documentaries about medicine mainly because it’s going to inevitably ship me into a assumed spiral about heritage and persecution. I want to observe factors that assist me get pleasure from what I appreciate most about being stoned: the experience of being chill, all set to indulge in satisfaction, and willing to develop on absurdist humor and chortle until I cry. Which is why my beloved piece of stoner cinema isn’t even about stoners. Pootie Tang is, to me, a stoner film without having any weed. It’s just a great mix of comedy, absurdism, and delight, all items that are improved with weed.
What do films get improper about individuals who smoke weed?
Smith: In motion pictures, all people is just blasted out of their head all the time. The stoner for some reason is observed as lazy and not keen to subscribe to typical decency and holding your shit in purchase in community. Most individuals who smoke weed, you never even know when they are smoking cigarettes weed—you just believe they’re high simply because of previous utilization. Fifty percent the time folks in opinions under my audio interviews are like, ‘Oh, he is significant as hell!’ No. This is just how I am all the time, guys. Sorry to disappoint. And you really do not see weed smokers wearing regular outfits. They are normally dressed like The Dude.
Wolfson: Films greatly portray weed as a man factor, and I never feel they portray it accurately. When I was growing up, we experienced How Large?, Harold & Kumar, Cheech & Chong from my parents’ technology. The stereotypical stoner characters in people films depict one thing you really do not want to be: a lousy mate, a poor partner, a bad university student. And that is not actual, you know? I would appreciate to see stories about how somebody had to get into weed for the reason that what ever they ended up doing the job in fucked them in excess of, or the child who had to arrive off antidepressants and located weed—these are accurate stories and I never believe they’re getting represented at all.
Harris: That the authorities grows fantastic weed. Just about every movie has “the govt weed.” But if you really know what the government grows, you know the federal government grows the worst weed. Like, there is a farm in Mississippi that is the only 1 federally authorized to increase cannabis for most cancers individuals and federally funded research… and it is hardly recognizable as weed. Also, no one particular knows how to apparent a bong in films! That is under no circumstances been carried out.
Stereotypical stoner people symbolize a thing you don’t want to be: a terrible close friend, a bad lover, a lousy student. And that is not actual, you know? – Rachel Wolfson
Stanley: Movie and tv portrayals of cannabis and the folks who consume it are dated and inaccurate. They hardly ever showcase the creativeness and medicinal positive aspects that come from cigarette smoking weed and it really just would make the portrayals appear foolish.
David: In addition to the truth that most stoner movies star guys, I feel the performance component is the most inaccurate. Several stoners are stoned all working day, including in the course of their work shifts, with unquestionably no negative affect. But I get that that’s fewer fun to clearly show on movie.
Grimm: Any character who hits a joint is a melt away-out or loser or like the great Cher Horowitz claimed in Clueless, “It is one factor to spark up a doobie and get laced at functions, but it is quite a different to be fried all day.” Very first of all, it sounds like a narc infiltrating a teenager-frequented incredibly hot location wrote this line. Next, no, Cher! You can be fried (semi or entirely) all day and reside your damn everyday living. Finally, non-dudes get superior, far too! But that was in 1995. Smoking cigarettes weed is just not subversive or hyper-masculine any longer. Fucking Martha Stewart hawked lighters alongside Snoop Dogg in a very blatantly double-entendre business and Goop sells pipes (which are basically very really fantastic). The most unexciting trainer from your superior university now pops an edible when they come to feel frisky.
What’s your favored matter to watch when you are superior?
David: I appreciate observing things that make me feel either smooth-brained with no concerns (no-stakes truth Television set like Great British Bake-Off or Like Island), that make me laugh till I cry (I Feel You Need to Leave, Pootie Tang), and anything at all that helps make me sense deep feelings, truthfully. At times I want to enjoy anything nostalgic or emotional since which is how my higher feels that working day!
Smith: I love Blue Earth, I like Bob Ross, King of the Hill… Regular things, I suppose, absolutely nothing too enjoyable.
Grimm: My partner and I are huge Bravo nerds—particularly Vanderpump Procedures, Shahs of Sunset, and the Genuine Housewives franchises in Potomac and SLC. You will find just so considerably sensory shit popping at at the time. (My to start with-at any time Housewives knowledge was Atlanta, following a good deal of mushrooms, on a road excursion in faculty in a hotel home in Dillon, SC. It was way too a great deal and I built my mate transform it off. I have progressed because.) Other stuff: Architecture Digest’s “Open Door” collection I am geographically obligated to like Atlanta but Donald Glover will make it straightforward Acquire Out with Lisa Ling tends to make me feel like I’m traveling without having transferring from the sofa or bed.
Stanley: I am superior most of the time and smoke weed all day, so I appreciate consuming all media from that perspective. I normally enjoy looking at documentaries due to the fact they make me believe much more critically and holistically about the globe about me.
Wolfson: I really like any alien stuff—sometimes when I get super superior I’m like, Alright, let’s put on Historical Aliens. Fact tv, like 90 Working day Fiancé or Married at Initially Sight, since it’s straightforward to test out from, and—not to be morbid—but probably a superior murder documentary.
Harris: Usa Network procedurals. Can not go erroneous with Monk. I imagine Monk is secretly for stoners—the only visitor stars they ever experienced were Willie Nelson and Snoop Dogg.
Katie Way is a senior staff author at VICE. Comply with her on Twitter.