screwy reviewy: Super High Me

Super high me is a play on “super size me”, in title, and in form. In this movie, a regular cannabis user; comedian Doug Benson, abstains for 30 days, indulges very heavily for 30 days, and then compares his “vital stats”.

Firstly, the areas in which they test hardly seem well thought out. The areas tested are memory, sperm count, lung capacity, SAT scores, weight difference, and “psychic ability”. The litmus test, of course, is his performance at his job; stand-up comedy. There is no emotional test of any kind, no neurosis inventory, no personality test, no creativity scale. The tests that are missing, I think, are the most likely to be effected.

I was agitated further by realizing that the tests were not really the focus of this movie. So what is the focus? Well, for the first 30-day period (of sobriety), the movie meditates on cannabis use very frigidly, spoken by comedians who likely have nothing to offer different from what a hastily chosen stranger might have said.

Next, “Dispensaries” are brought to the viewers attention. In california, Dispensaries are small private shops that sell medical marijuana to patients who have a prescription. Originally this is discussed to explain how Doug Benson is consistently using cannabis on camera legally. However, more footage of this, culminating in a raid, awkwardly juts in thereafter.

What we are left with is pretty incoherent; cutting between results of “tests”, Doug Benson being really really stoned in the public, and completely serious footage of a federal bust of a medical marijuana shop. The movie has no uniting theme. It’s like watching 3 “Ok” movies braided together.

No comments: