So like, this dude, you know, he's pretty cool. Free spirit type, looks like his grandfather was Bob Dylan or something, like seriously. But the guy's really cool, you know? And he won't be hemmed in by the system, so he makes his living growing buds up on top of this amazing mountain. He like, works himself to death almost to bring in a good harvest, k? and then like, everyone starts throwing these heavy trips on him about how what he does is illegal & B.S. like that.
He's got a hot girlfriend, all his artist, poet & playwright friends live in the best pads and everything is like all Southern California, right? Like, sunshine and blue water, green grass. Even though the dude has to put up with a lot of crap it's worth it to him, because he's free. Free to work his balls off on something that really matters to him, which is himself, his core beliefs, and above all his pot plants. Doesn't even seem to smoke it much. Really nice guy, he's even skinny and well-groomed and dresses like Howie Mandel.
Then one of his street level re-sellers gets busted. Oops. He doesn't get ratted out or nothing but his hot rich materialistic girlfriend flips out, thinking like she's going to get busted too for being an accessory. Another friend who "diversified" into coke gets popped during a deal gone bad and he realizes that ... well, he could get busted, or die, or get shot and like, not be able to go to bars & stuff. Heavy thinking time! She gives him an ultimatum: Ditch the buds and come east with me for a job at my dad's company or goom-bye. Meanwhile, man eating wild boars are eating his pot plants, helicopters are buzzing the fields, and he gets stopped by the CHIPS dragging home a truck full of manure from his weed farm. At least I think it was manure -- the film tried to be a bit too clever in suggesting duality of both identity and actions in the film. Maybe there was weed under the manure, because he's busily trimming it in the next scene before he goes to visit his buddy in the hospital who as either dying of AIDS or cancer. Not sure which, though I still felt sorry for the bastard either way.
Now, with all of this the film already had plenty going for it, and to squeeze any more amongst the nearly pornographic closeups of mature marijuana plants was taking a risk. And that's why I admire the film even while rolling my eyes at it. It was an incredibly risky little project, the apparent actual use of actual illicit materiel in the actual film notwithstanding. There's likely a very good reason why this film is out of print; One has to wonder how up front the producers were to whomever financed the film, since theoretically they too would have been accessories after the fact for funding the project.
Unless of course they had a big cannabis bonfire at the end, maybe at a Lollapallooza show or someplace useful like that I hope. There is also of course one sad reality to this War On Drugs era fantasy which is that the Internal Revenue Service would have been very interested in how he scored this $60,000 he speaks so confidently of obtaining via his efforts. That others outside of the law would also want to take it from him is part of the calculation, and the film makes it's riskiest move by not telling us exactly what happened when someone does.
The person I saw it with drew a more favorable conclusion about the very ambiguous ending, namely that the guy got away with it somehow & it was a celebration party. I'm not so sure, if only because of the recurring theme of dual identity coming back into play with the upbeat, dreamy ending. Some may conclude that the film ultimately says that crime can pay if you're very very careful, but I think that's a bit too easy. The story is complex and layered with meaning -- too much at times, I would even argue -- and such a simple ending leaves too many questions hanging. Specifically, what were the dead guys doing at his party?
5/10: Worth looking at, but you know in all honesty, this movie bummed me out.
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