The Top 5 Stoner Movies

In honor of the upcoming -- and awesome-looking -- Pineapple Express, it's time to look into the past and count down the top five stoner movies. Ever.

This is of course my own opinion, so feel free to argue. But just for clarification purposes, my definition of a stoner film is a movie that (a) contains at least one instance of pot-smoking, and (b) is widely known to be beloved by actual stoners.

It goes without saying that merely labeling these "stoner movies" is a bit shortsighted -- indeed, the reason they're all classic is because they're so much more. Well, at least the top three. #5 and #4 are pretty straightforward.

5. Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle
I had the privilege of interviewing Kal Penn -- a.k.a. Kumar -- a while back, and he insisted that this movie isn't a stoner movie because the heroes are actually pursuing hamburgers, not weed. Sure, Kal. Except that the reason they're pursuing hamburgers is because they're so high. It doesn't matter -- Harold & Kumar is a relentlessly hilarious one-night-long road trip that single-handedly brought Neil Patrick Harris back into the national consciousness.

4. Up in Smoke
You cannot create a list of stoner movies without paying homage to this film, which is the stoner-movie-ist stoner movie of all stoner movies. Cheech and Chong at their best: playing two guys who smuggle a van, made entirely of marijuana, from Mexico to the U.S.

3. The Big Lebowski
For quotes alone, this is one of the best movies of all time. "You're out of your element, Donnie." "She kidnapped herself!" "The royal 'we.'" "This is what happens when you f--- a stranger in the a--!" "They're nihilists, dude." "The rug really tied the room together." Shall I go on? The Big Lebowski also has the rare honor of paradoxically being a highbrow stoner movie, in that it comes from Joel and Ethan Coen, the writer-directors of No Country for Old Men and tons of other terrific movies. Get involved in the super-complicated story, stay for the pitch-perfect dialogue, and remember the Saddam Hussein/Viking costume/bowling dream sequence forever.

2. Dazed and Confused
Recall your high school days with warm nostalgia in Richard Linklater's ode to teenagers, which follows a group of 13- and 17-year-olds over the course of about fifteen hours following the last day of school in Texas in 1976. The plot is (by design) not cohesive and the pace is leisurely, but the characters will all have a hold of you by the end. Plus there's that immortal line: "That's what I love about these high school girls, man. I get older, they stay the same age."

1. Super Troopers
"That little guy? I wouldn't worry about that little guy." One of the best comedies of all time, watching this movie for the ninth time is like hanging out with your closest friends -- if your closest friends were a hundred times funnier than they actually are. I can't even describe the simple pleasures of Super Troopers, except that they involve plenty of shenanigans.

Michael Dance
StrandedinManhattan.com

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