When choosing what to watch while stoned, it’s imperative that you do so with a fair amount of thought implemented into the choice beforehand.
There’s nothing worse than coming home after a long day of work, kicking your feet up on the coffee table or couch, and trying in vain to find a good movie to watch. With almost too many streaming services to choose from, and physical media sadly dying out a rather slow and painful death, your movie-night can oftentimes feel pretty bleak.
The choice of what to watch, can at best be confusing, and at worst-- depressing. It’s one thing to watch a movie sober, but it’s a whole other ballgame of wax to experience the same film while stoned. I’ll never forget the particular experience of hot-boxing a friend’s car in the parking lot, right before walking into an IMAX theatre showing of Pacific Rim (2013), for the second time.
When choosing what to watch while stoned, it’s imperative that you do so with a fair amount of thought implemented into the choice beforehand. You don’t want to throw all caution to the wind, and so callously and cavalierly put on a flick, that you regret doing so right away. Otherwise, the whole cinematic enterprise will be a weakly wasted venture. Here are three very different films that I’d recommend watching while stoned, albeit for very different reasons.
People love to argue what they think is “the best film of all time”. While those high-falutin cineaste conversations certainly have their charms, I’m often intrigued by bad movies. The actual worst of the worst. There’s a real subtle art to picking a bad movie to watch. The tried-and-true adage of “It’s so bad that it’s good”, truly holds some real sway and merit. This can be tough to gage, as the line between that—and “so bad that it’s just bad” is a tough nut to crack. That line distinguishing between those two separate film-schools-of-thought, is so admittedly thin, as to almost be utterly indecipherable.
The Room (2003) is unquestionably a movie that’s “so bad that it’s good”. Made under the auspices that it was meant to be the next modern American masterpiece. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t. The Room falls utterly flat, and hilariously apart, due to the terrible writing, baffling story threads, entirely unconvincing acting and sheer “how did this ever get made” hutzpah, which you admittedly can’t but help respect. Albeit, in a rather snarky and acerbic way.
It's certainly, fun to watch while stoned, as everything just magnifies into even stronger bits of absolutely unintentional comedy. The best movies to laugh at, are the ones that try way too hard to be good, and are under the deluded belief that they are. Most definitely a film to watch with a like-minded group of friends. Whatever you do, do not, and I cannot stress this enough, do not watch The Room, alone, and sober. That’s just asking for an exercise in pure masochism. I sadly speak from experience.
I’d be totally remiss if I didn’t recommend an insanely good and insanely over-the-top action flick. Seeing as action films, are one of my all-time top favourite genres. The Raid: Redemption (2012) is an absolutely mind-blowing Indonesian-action extravaganza, with incredible and entirely unrivaled fight choreography. The cinematography is done in many long, extended takes, with fluid motion throughout. That way, you can always tell what’s going on, who’s who, who’s fighting who, and what the general geography is, of any given space. None of this “fifteen quick-shots-rapidly-spliced-together-in-lightning-fast-succession-in order-to-fake-Liam-Neeson-hopping-a-fence-in-Taken-3-nonsense”. I won’t stand for it. Also, all the actors are their own stuntmen. You see every hit, and feel every punch, stab, slice and bone-break.
The first time I saw The Raid, was at a private advanced screening. Five minutes in, and the subtitles promptly cut-out. The theatre stopped the film, and tried their utmost to fix the issue, but alas, the little text at the bottom was gone, without a trace. Many people left, in equal parts grumbled confusion, anger and frustration. I was one of the very few, who elected to stay. I didn’t care that I couldn’t understand the dialogue, for I was too entranced and enthralled by what I saw on screen, to care. I made up the plot in my own head, as to what I thought were the inner Machiavellian workings of the many different characters and story beats. I watched it a second time much later, now with subtitles, and truth be told, my fantasy plot in my mind wasn’t all that far off from the real cinematic story. Now that’s just good filmmaking on their part.
Lastly, but never least, I’ll offer up Predestination (2015) by The Spierig Brothers. They’re a pair of identical Aussie siblings with some truly great, gnarly & nasty horror flicks under their belt. If you want a side of cerebellum-scrambled-egg with your cannabis, then look no further than their super trippy-time travel flick. The less you know about it before going in, the better. Just know that the plot is dense, as all good-time travel stories often are. Plus, I see Ethan Hawke on the poster, and I promptly watch the movie immediately.
Whichever one of these three aforementioned flicks you do decide to indulge in (maybe you’re doing a triple bill, and in that case-- all power to you), I hope you enjoy! And make sure you grab your favourite snack, after partaking in any ganja particulars, but always before pressing play.
Dim the lights!
Mary-Jane
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