Stoner Cinema (pt. II)
Friday
Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical
Happy belated 420 everyone 💚 In this relentlessly stressful and unpredictable world I hope you’re taking the time to relax when you can. Relaxation can be achieved in many different ways, with many different kinds of spa treatments and substances, but tonight we’re exploring films that are centered around that relaxing green stuff (and I’m not talking about the green stuff coating every outdoor surface this time of year) Marijuana, cannabis, weed, pot, ganja, dope, The Devil’s Lettuce, that good good, whatever you may call it, has thankfully become less and less stigmatized as time goes on, and one of the ways this is demonstrated is in the depiction of it film over time. From Cheech and Chong to Dazed and Confused, to Pineapple Express to Harold and Kumar, to the Harold and Kumar Christmas Special, weed is so beloved and influential that countless films have been made on the subject and no two are alike. Perhaps the greatest evidence of this are tonight’s Double Features: two films that cover cannabis in remarkably different ways. I’ve seen many of what are considered the “classics” of stoner cinema, but one major movie was missing from my resume: F. Gary Gray’s 1995 film Friday. Starring and written by Ice Cube, Friday is held on one of the highest pedestals of weed films and became a cult classic pretty early on. Ice Cube, and his co-writer DJ Pooh, were aggravated by the depiction of the hood in film, and how these violent portrayals didn’t match what they’d actually experienced. They set out to make a personal, light-hearted film, and the result became one of the most adored stoner films of all time. Ice Cube stars as Craig: a recently unemployed man on one particular Friday where he finds himself embroiled in far more drama than he expected. His friend Smokey (played by the inherently iconic Chris Tucker) is a dealer who wants nothing more than to kick back and smoke with his bestie Craig, who doesn’t partake, but this Friday had other plans for these two buds. After Smokey upsets his weed supplier Big Worm, him and Craig have to pay Big Worm $200 by 10pm or else he’ll kill them. This film, which was shot in a mere 20 days with a meager budget on 126th street of South Central Los Angeles (where the cast was instructed not to wear red since they were in Crip country), is almost like a play. Craig and Smokey spend most of this film perched on Craig’s front porch, trying to concoct a plan to make money, with each member of this crazy cast showing up one after the other to cause our protagonists even more trouble. This cast (Regina King, Nia Long, John Witherspoon, Anna Maria Horsford, Faizon Love, Tony Cox, and Bernie Mac) was so major that Michael Clarke Duncan is even in this but is somehow uncredited. Friday has contributed so much to the culture, from its appreciation of weed to its great soundtrack to the utterance of one of the internet’s favorite meme-turned-t-shirt slogans: Bye Felicia! There are many other oft-quoted and referenced parts of this film, but for nearly a decade on the internet you could not avoid the phrase “Bye Felicia”. This movie is hilarious and full of suspense, and apart from some doses of some all too familiar misogyny, Friday was so much fun to watch. I knew Ice Cube was a phenomenal comedic actor from his performances in the 21 Jump Street films, but seeing him this young and vibrant was really cool to witness. Like any good stoner movie, Friday takes lots of unexpected turns, but watching Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical, a movie with even more twists and turns, I was positively dazed and yes, somewhat confused. There’s a little bit of context needed for how we get from Reefer Madness, the anti-marijuana propaganda exploitation film from the 1930s, to the 2005 Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical but I’ll try my best to keep it brief. The original Reefer Madness movie was at first called “Tell Your Children”, and was meant to be screened to parents in order to warn them about the new craze among teens: this wacko plant that grows from the earth naturally called marijuana. While the origins of Reefer Madness are somewhat unknown, its intentions are clear, and by the 1970s the result of this 98 minute condemnation of cannabis is a film that is appreciated and thoroughly criticized by stoners and straight edge people alike. It was so over-the-top and absurd that it’s often considered to be the first film that a generation embraced as “the worst”. Which brings us to the Reefer Madness Musical, which took to the stage in 1998 and only improved upon this tale of grandiose depravity. When I saw that there was a Reefer Madness Musical, I already knew that I wanted to experience that. But when I found out that it was written by Kevin Murphy, the writer of one of my favorite musicals of all time, Heathers the Musical, I was fully sold. This musical is so ridiculous that you have to constantly remind yourself that this story hardly differs at all from the original 1936 film. In fact, there are some tweaks to the story that ultimately make it less aggressive and more lighthearted than its original story. The original Reefer Madness follows a promising young boy as he becomes swept up and lost in the dark world of marijuana, where some truly batshit events occur. That’s why it lends itself so well to a campy musical that can really expand upon each wacky and wild consequence of the sticky icky. I hate to give too much away, but between the intensely choreographed weed orgy, the multiple murders, and the long sequence of Neve Campbell dancing, this felt like it could’ve been Cocaine the Musical. In the original, Jimmy’s girlfriend Mary is nearly raped by a drug-abuser, but here, she tries to rape him—a win for feminism! In all seriousness on this topic that couldn’t be less serious, this silly musical was actually thoroughly entertaining and reasonably funny. Was it Heathers the Musical good? Nothing will ever be that good. But it was still a blast to watch. If the ludicrousness of a Reefer Madness Musical isn’t intriguing enough for you, the randomness of its cast might: Alan Cumming, Kristen Bell, Ana Gasteyer, Steven Weber, Neve Campbell, and her brother Christian? I’m not making this up and I’m not even high, so just take my word for it and explore another side of stoner cinema next time you celebrate 420. Whether you partake in this peaceful plant or not, I find it hard to believe that either of these movies would let you down. So why not kick back, relax, and indulge in a good movie or two. Happy holidays, dear readers, I’ll see you when the smoke clears.
*And if you’re like me and feel that weed should be legal and that no one should be behind bars for cannabis charges, why not tell your elected officials to wake up and smell the dank reality—the majority of Americans support the legalization of cannabis and it won’t hurt to give congress that reminder: https://www.cannabisincommon.org/
Or maybe give your attention/money to those doing time for what is no longer a criminal act:
