Turn on these stoner favorites to celebrate 4/20
For many celebrating 4/20, the holiday is an opportunity to light up and put on something to watch. The Daily Orange compiled the best movies to watch while high. Emma Soto | Contributing Illustrator
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After a long day of school, you toss your school bag to a corner, make your comfort meal and grab your joint. You turn the lights off, turn the TV on and take a hit. As you start to feel the effects, you surf between streaming platforms, but you’re overwhelmed with what to watch. A stoner comedy or a visually stimulating film? It’s a conundrum many stoners face.
To celebrate 4/20, The Daily Orange compiled a list of recommendations of films to watch while high:
“Dazed and Confused” (1993, dir. Richard Linklater)
Alright, alright, alright — the quintessential stoner film is “Dazed and Confused.” Richard Linklater’s 1993 coming-of-age classic follows rising high school senior Randall “Pink” Floyd (Jason London) on the last day of school in 1976 Texas. Pink takes incoming freshman Mitch Kramer (Wiley Wiggins) under his wing while wrestling with whether to sign a pledge from his football coach that prohibits players from drug use.
Linklater uses a keg party, joints and a killer soundtrack — featuring Aerosmith, Black Sabbath and more — to present teenage nostalgia and angst. Ron Slater’s (Rory Cochrane) pot leaf T-shirt and David Wooderson’s (Matthew McConaughey) laid back, anti-authoritarian personality add to the film’s stoner mystique. “Dazed and Confused” concludes with Mitch putting his headphones on and striking a grin as Foghat’s “Slow Ride” plays; the scene is as smooth as hitting a joint and as satisfying as a perfect high settling in.
“Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” (1998, dir. Terry Gilliam)
Journalist Raoul Duke (Johnny Depp) and his attorney, Dr. Gonzo (Benicio del Toro), spend a weekend in Las Vegas; Raoul is on an assignment to cover the Mint 400 and a narcotics convention for a newspaper. The pair is extremely high on an assortment of drugs throughout the entire weekend. Believe it or not, this is based on a true story.
To truly capture the weird humor of the movie, you would have to be in the same state as the characters: high. The film depicts some of the most bizarre hallucinations the characters go through. Admittedly, the plot moves at a very fast pace and it’s hard to understand what the film is about. But, being in the same state as the characters does just enough to make “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” the perfect 4/20 watch.
“Smiley Face” (2007, dir. Gregg Araki)
Stoner comedies almost always revolve around men. Cult classics like “Pineapple Express” and “Cheech & Chong’s Up in Smoke” follow bromances and find jokes in their misfortune. But I’d argue that Anna Faris’ portrayal of Jane F. — a girl who gets more and more stoned as the film goes on — is the funniest of them all.
Edited like an iMovie you’d make in middle school, “Smiley Face” is 85 minutes of pure absurdity. With hilarious side plots and features from comedy legends like John Krasinski, Adam Brody and Jane Lynch (all in their early 2000s eras), the film is a wild ride that’ll have you cackling on the same level as Jane — and maybe just as high.
“Tron: Legacy” (2010, dir. Joseph Kosinski)
There’re stoner comedies, and there’re visually stimulating movies that allow you to escape to a different world when you’re high. There’re several films that fit the criteria: “The Matrix,” “Blade Runner 2049” and “Interstellar” to name a few. However, the quintessential visually stimulating film when you’re stoned has to be “Tron: Legacy.”
When the film came out in 2010, the neon blue aesthetic combined with a futuristic reimagination of an electronic-dystopian city made the movie an eye-catching show stopper. But if you decide to watch the movie high, it will completely elevate the viewing experience.
“21 Jump Street” (2012, dir. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller)
“21 Jump Street” is based on the Fox television series of the same name that ran from 1987 to 1991. The TV show struggled with ratings with Depp, the show’s lead, even trying to get himself fired from the show. The show ended by its fourth season. However, the 2012 film completely spins the show around into a hysterical buddy cop comedy.
The movie follows two knucklehead cops Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) as they go undercover in a high school to find a drug dealer. The premise of the movie is pretty basic, but its one-liners are what makes this a perfect film to have you in stitches, especially when you’re high.
