super high me Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Maybe you're a raving pothead who runs around going "Dude, it's 4/20 today! Let's totally bake oooout!" Or maybe you're a non-partaker who still enjoys watching stoned people act silly. Or MAYBE you hate marijuana but you just like documentary films that dole out funny and informative in equal measure.

Well good news. Tonight ALL of you can tune in to the television world premiere of Super High Me, which is a pro-weed doco that played to an appreciative (if slightly fragrant) audience at last year's SXSW Film Festival. Borrowing a leafy page from Morgan Spurlock's (clearly influential) Super Size Me, Michael Blieden's Super High Me charts the journey of one serious pot-smoker (affable comedian Doug Benson) who decides to abstain for thirty(!) full days ... before smoking like Cheech times Chong for the NEXT 30 days. Along the way we learn a lot of (baked and biased but still interesting) things about pot culture, legality, medicinal uses, and physiological effects.

Plus, of course, G4 has a whole evening packed with weed-flavored programming, so go grab some munchies and see what all the puffings about. For more on the flick, check out the official site right here, and if you're still jonesin' then go read Erik Davis' review and eat some Twinkies.

It started as a joke, became a documentary, and now it's on DVD. Comedian Doug Benson undertook a bold initiative: to smoke marijuana every day for 30 days. Of course, he'd already been smoking pot pretty much every day of his life, so to make things really interesting, he first stopped smoking for 30 days and took a battery of tests so he could later compare the results of smoking vs. non-smoking on his thirty-something body. Super High Me is the result.

The stoner crowd laughed much harder than I did at SXSW, but, as Erik Davis wrote, Super High Me is still "funny as hell," and the doc, directed by Michael Blieden, manages to sneak in plenty of social and political commentary. The DVD doesn't appear to have any extras, but it is available with two different covers. See if you can tell the difference. To quote Erik again, "True stoners, however, will most likely place this film on a shelf among their favorites of all time ... then forget it's up there five minutes later."

One of my SXSW favorites also premieres on DVD today. Following on the heels of Anton Corbjin's biopic Control, Grant Gee's doc Joy Division is a rousing, illuminating peek into the lives of the original members of the band, featuring interviews with almost all of the key players.

In a little while we'll be shoveling out our list of the ten best films from this year's South by Southwest Film Festival, and we'll continue to finish off our reviews over the weekend, but in the meantime I figured I'd stop by and give you my final thoughts (as a person who attended the fest for the first time this year). SXSW is wayyy different from, say, Sundance or even Tribeca, because there's an unbelievable amount of partying going on ... all the time. You can't leave a screening without seeing a row of about seven bars lined up across the street -- all of which have live music blaring out their doors. Yeah. So it's a bit difficult to see a film, then run home and review it -- because there are several different awesome obstacles in your way. Not that that's a bad thing.

First off, a few films that really need some love:

• Starring John C. Reilly and Seann William Scott, The Promotion was, by far, the funniest film I've seen all year. If you adore Election, then you'll definitely like this flick -- which I've said is like Election ... but in a supermarket ... with older guys.
• I'm not much of a horror guy AT ALL, but Dance of the Dead was one helluva fun flick. So fun that half our Cinematical crew went to see it twice in, like, three days. Of course, watching it at the Alamo Ritz was definitely part of the experience (they shot down confetti during one scene ... and it was super awesome), but the film itself is still one of the more original zombie flicks I've seen since Shaun of the Dead. Very funny. Very well done. (Two words: Graveyard scene.)
• Joe Swanberg's Nights and Weekends was another flick I really enjoyed. Different, unique -- it may piss off those of you looking for structured plots and predictable outcomes, but give it a shot when IFC releases it later this year. (Keep in mind, though, that Joe is fond of "revealing his parts" on screen.)
• I also adored both Super High Me and Forgetting Sarah Marshall, but I don't think those need the love -- folks will flock regardless of what I say.

After the jump ... I become a superhero and save one thousand half-nekked women from a group of monsters and three psycho nuns -- all while eating BBQ at Iron Works with Weinberg ...

Let's see if I remember this one ...

One of the funniest stoner comedies I've seen in quite some time, Super High Me -- a new documentary starring comedian Doug Benson – takes Morgan Spurlock's successful Super Size Me format and applies it to smoking weed. Benson, who originally began this whole thing by including the Super High Me joke as part of his act, actually decided to go ahead with the ridiculous film and the result is definitely geared more toward the stoner crowd, but funny as all hell nonetheless.

Directed by Michael Blieden, Super High Me is cut into two halves: the first follows Benson around for 30 days while he doesn't get high. See, it's during this time that he puts his body through all sorts of tests -- stress tests, blood pressure, sperm counts, psychic tests and even an S.A.T. test. Once those 30 days are over, Benson spends another 30 days smoking pot morning, noon and night. All pot ... all the time. Naturally, toward the end of the final 30 days, Benson puts his body through all of the same tests to see what, if any, effect marijuana use had on him.

I recently got to have a very entertaining conversation with Super High Me star Doug Benson and producer Alex Campbell -- most of which you'll get to read later -- but for now, there's some fun news to share regarding the flick. As you may or may not know, Super High Me is (obviously) a take-off on Morgan Spurlock's very entertaining Super Size Me -- only instead of eating Big Macs for 30 days ... Doug Benson is going to smoke marijuana (all day every day) for 30 days. (But only after he stays pot-free for 30 days, of course.)

If this sounds like an entertaining idea for a documentary ... too bad. Someone already made it. Get your own idea. But here's the next best thing: If you'd like to organize a (FREE!) screening of Michael Bleiden's Super High Me for you and your pals, you can do so starting on (you guessed it) April 20. You don't even have to smoke weed while you watch it! It's funny either way! (Erik Davis' full review of Super High Me will appear on this very blog in the very near future. But here's a preview: He liked it.)

Head on over to the official b-side.com / Super High Me website to check out all the "Roll Your Own Screening" information. Over at The Hollywood Reporter, Screen Media's Suzanne Blech summed it up nicely: ""It can be difficult to get stoners off the couch ... The number of people who get stoned in America is quite a large percentage, and all we want for them is to tell their friends that they have to see this funny, funny movie." Well, speaking as a big fan of ...comedy, I can agree with Suzanne there. The only people who might not chuckle at this flick are DEA agents.

The last thing you want to see in your rear view mirror when it's past 2:00 in the morning and you're half a mile from where you're staying are flashing red lights. Yup, I got pulled over last night by a very polite police officer. After quizzing me about what I was doing on that lonely road and learning that I'd only had one beer five hours before (remember: don't drink and drive), he informed me that my license plate light was burned out. He returned my driver's license and proof of insurance along with the admonishment to get my broken light fixed. I sighed in relief and cautiously finished driving to my friend's place, about 20 miles north of where all the action is happening at South By Southwest.

Earlier in the day, I managed to dodge the rest of the Cinematical crew -- honestly, I think they were playing ding dong ditch with me -- and arrived in plenty of time for my first screening at the beautiful Paramount Theatre. Super High Me is very funny, if somewhat muddled, take on Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me; comedian Doug Benson decides that he will get high from smoking marijuana every day and documents it on camera. Benson led a very entertaining post-screening Q&A.

From there I walked about ten minutes to the Alamo Ritz, where a much smaller crowd sat through music doc The Upsetter, based on the life and music of Lee "Scratch" Perry. I'll have more to say about that one as soon as I get my review written up. After that I retrieved my car and drove a few miles south to the Alamo Lamar multiplex in time to see a "secret" screening of Baghead, which was described by Eric D. Snider as "a blast of fresh air" -- I totally agree. Filmmakers Mark and Jay Duplass were present along with members of the cast and crew for another entertaining, relaxed Q&A session. That put me in a good mood, which came in handy for my meeting with Friendly Mister Policeman.