I don’t go in much for pothead humor, always finding Cheech and Chong too much like hanging out with pothead friends of mine to really enjoy the experience. (I liked them at first, but then I kept hoping they’d just fall asleep already.) I gave Half Baked a shot, but–nah. Maybe it’s my own non-pothead back-story. (Alas, I probably identify more with Foster Brooks.) So maybe pot movies are a genre beyond me. Until I saw Harold and Kumar, which was a loony delight, ineffably (or just effing) funny. That’s it, then. Found the one true pot film.
Then I saw Smiley Face, and–now THIS is a pot film. I can’t really say it will alter your sense of the world, and the politically, sexually edgy Gregg Araki seems here not so much to mute as to sublimate the commentary into its lead character Jane F’s sweet, confused, outsized worldview. Playing way over the top–I mean, Lucille Ball-broad–and absolutely nailing the role, Anna Faris is the movie. I absolutely loved her slack-jawed, wide-eyed, half-sentient, utterly-beguiling moron, even though at times I thought — no, no, this is too much, she’s taking it too big. But about a third of the way in there’s a great scene as she auditions that convinced me how precisely perfect she was. The film’s filled with a great small supporting cast (John Krascinski is quite good, John Cho and Danny Masterson and Jane Lynch all fine), and it’s got lots of Araki’s trippy stylized editing and game-playing… but, again, I think Faris was amazing and is the key reason to see it. Very funny film.