Humboldt County (2008)

A disillusioned medical student is stranded for a summer in a remote community of counterculture pot farmers, the last place in the world he imagined he would discover himself.

Directors:

Darren Grodsky, Danny Jacobs

Writers:

Darren Grodsky, Danny Jacobs

Stars:

Jeremy Strong, Fairuza Balk, Peter Bogdanovich

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jeremy Strong	...	Peter
Fairuza Balk	...	Bogart
Peter Bogdanovich	...	Professor Hadley
Vicky Monroe	...	Sondra
Tarek Zohdy	...	Medical Student
Lawrence Bridges	...	Man in Bathroom
John Murdock	...	Jazz Club Bassist
Lenny Pettinelli	...	Jazz Club Pianist
B. Swislo	...	Jazz Club Drummer
Brad Dourif	...	Jack
Frances Conroy	...	Rosie
Madison Davenport	...	Charity
Chris Messina	...	Max
Geoffrey Robinson	...	Earl (as Geoffrey 'Lizard' Robinson)
Darren Grodsky	...	Bob

Storyline

Peter is burned out: finishing med school at UCLA, failing the bedside manner class his father teaches, no sleep in days. He spends the night with Bogart, a woman he's just met, and the next day, sleepily gets in her car. He wakes up in Arcata, where Bogart's foster family lives in the woods: Max, his daughter, mom, and step dad. They grow marijuana for their own consumption, except for Max, who has planted six hidden patches for one big score. Bogart hates pot farming - feds are on constant patrol - so she splits, leaving Peter to depend on Max for a ride to the bus. A day stretches into two, and Peter puts off leaving. A reckoning with his dad is inevitable: is Peter's rebirth possible?

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Plot Keywords:

catching a bus | barbeque | cremains | driving a car over a cliff | ketchup | 

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Taglines:

Where the grass is greener

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for drug content and language throughout

Did You Know?

Quotes

[first lines]
Bogart: [in doctor's office] When I came home from the clinic everyone was asleep. Normally they'd hear my truck. We live in the middle of nowhere, so... I parked it about a half a mile down the road and I walked home, but my boyfriend heard. He hears everything. When he came in to see what was wrong, I just tried to pretend to be asleep. But I couldn't hold it in, and I started to cry.
Peter: Go on...
Bogart: Sorry. I was balling my eyes out, and uh, he held me. And I wished... I wished I hadn't done it. I...
[...]

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Soundtracks

Turn to the Assassin
Performed by Junip
From the album Black Refuge
Written by José González, Elias Araya, Tobias Winterkorn
© 2006 Temeshet

User Reviews

Just caught the premiere

A few friends and I caught the premiere of Humboldt County at the South by Southwest film festival in Austin last night. Quick summary: If you get a chance, go see this movie.

Prior to seeing it, there was some debate about whether this was a "drug" movie, especially since a few other premieres at SxSW ("Harold and Kumar II" and "Super High Me") are drug related--it's not. Although there are certainly joints in many (most) of the scenes, they are background and no more the focus of the movie than the gorgeous redwood trees and sweeping coastline that are also omni-present. Humboldt County is all about character development, some fantastic acting, and scenery that takes your breath away. When we were talking about the film after, we all agreed that that most similar movie we had all seen was "Garden State" except tone down the love story and shoot it in one of the most beautiful places on earth instead of Jersey (sorry NJ).

The co-directors and script writers (friends since they were 6) took questions after the show which is always interesting. Two of my favorite tid-bits from that: 1) One of the directors has an Uncle and Aunt in Humboldt and much of the script is based on real characters from his summers there as a child. 2) When the directors went to Humboldt to get away and work on a script, they were actually working on a totally different script which they scrapped so they could write this Humboldt-inspired one.

One other interesting point came out of the Q&A in which someone pointed out that for a directing debut, Humboldt was pretty ambitious--REAL actors, shot on location in 35mm, full length, etc. etc. It's a good point, and makes the movie all the more impressive...

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

26 September 2008 (USA)

Also Known As:

Humboldt County

Filming Locations:

Arcata, California, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$25,933, 28 September 2008

Gross USA:

$82,357

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$82,357

Company Credits

Production Co:

Embark Productions

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color