Comedian Doug Benson has never shied from his reputation as a
pothead. He’s even been recognized in High Times as such, and it
doesn’t get more credible than that. Now he’s come out with Super
High Me, a stoner production if there ever was one, which, it is no
doubt hoped, will catapult him into the addled consciousness of pop
culture tokers alongside Tommy Chong, Willie Nelson, and Snoop.
It began as a joke: If Morgan Spurlock could make Super Size
Me, a film about eating McDonald’s for 30 days, why not try the
same experiment with weed? Director Michael Blieden took Benson up on
it, and the documentary that results is severely scattered, but
frequently hilarious… quite like an aimless afternoon with a bag
of weed, actually.
In it, Benson, a habitual pot smoker, spends 30 days not smoking
weed, followed by 30 days smoking it nonstop. During both phases, he is
given a set of tests: SATs, physical exams, tests of psychic ability,
sperm count, etc. (Surprisingly, he improves on the SATs and his sperm
count skyrockets. Unsurprisingly, he gains eight pounds and becomes
seven times more psychic.)
There are somewhere around three or four incomplete films here: An
attempted serious look at the physical and mental consequences of
chronic pot smoking in the vein of the film it was inspired by
(unfortunately, Super High Me is way too half-assed to succeed
at this); a documentation of the legalization of medical marijuana (it
haphazardly makes a mockery of the movement as a sham for recreational
use, but sympathizes with the struggle of California’s dispensaries
against the feds); and a funny stoner romp with not only Benson but
fellow funny peeps like Sarah Silverman (who definitely inhales) and
Dana Gould, among others. With one foot in something serious, and the
other in good-time silliness, nothing is really accomplished here.
Yep. That sounds about right.