HIGH ART: A GUIDE TO THE BEST STONER MOVIES EVER MADE
OK so we meant to post this for 420 day
There are good movies, and then there are stoner movies — a genre built not just on jokes, but on pure vibes. They warp time, melt your brain, and sometimes even teach you a thing or two (usually about how not to live your life). Whether you’re lighting up, lying down, or just longing for the simpler high school days of skipping class and getting baked and eating fast food, these films are essential viewing. Forget Oscar bait. This is weed cinema at its finest: chaotic, hilarious, occasionally profound, and almost always a little bit stupid in the best way.
Up in Smoke (dir. Lou Adler, 1978)
You can’t even start talking about stoner movies without paying respect to Cheech and Chong, who basically invented the template for all future slacker comedies with this absolute masterpiece of mellow chaos. Cheech Marin’s unemployed drummer and Tommy Chong’s blissed-out wanderer team up, hit the road, and unknowingly drive a van made entirely out of marijuana from Mexico to Los Angeles. The plot barely matters…
Half Baked (dir. Tamra Davis, 1998)
Maybe the most beloved stoner movie of all time — and for good reason. Written by Chappelle’s Show masterminds Neal Brennan and Dave Chappelle, Half Baked is a chaotic tale of weed, friendship, and the fight for justice. After a buddy accidentally kills a police horse by feeding it junk food, three lifelong stoners are forced to get off the couch and start selling pharmaceutical-grade weed to bail him out. Deeply dumb, deeply funny, and way smarter than it looks.
Smiley Face (dir. Gregg Araki, 2007)
From New Queer Cinema god Gregg Araki comes one of the most underrated stoner comedies ever made. Anna Faris stars as Jane F., an underemployed actress who accidentally devours a tray of weed cupcakes and spends the rest of the day stumbling through increasingly absurd tasks. Buying more weed, meeting a casting agent (played by Jane Lynch), paying her electric bill — every minor errand turns into an existential odyssey. It’s a film about the beauty and terror of getting way, way too high.
Pineapple Express (dir. David Gordon Green, 2008)
A stone-cold modern classic. Somehow blending stoner comedy, buddy road movie, and hyper-violent action film into a single seamless trip, Pineapple Express stars Seth Rogen as Dale Denton, a process server who smokes a rare strain of weed and accidentally witnesses a murder. Along with his eternally blazed dealer Saul Silver (James Franco at his absolute funniest), Dale gets swept up in a bloody war between rival drug lords and corrupt cops. Fast, violent, and hysterically funny — it actually gets better the higher you are.
Fritz the Cat (dir. Ralph Bakshi, 1972)
You need at least one truly weird and grimy stoner movie, and Fritz the Cat is it. Adapted from R. Crumb’s underground comic, Ralph Bakshi’s notorious animated feature follows Fritz, a cynical, womanizing cat, as he embarks on a chaotic journey through a seedy, anthropomorphic version of 1960s New York City. The film was the first “X-rated” animated movie, packed with sex, drugs, political satire, and counterculture critiques. It’s deeply offensive, shockingly smart, and somehow still made $90 million on a shoestring budget. Not for the faint of heart (or the easily offended).
Waking Life (dir. Richard Linklater, 2001)
Richard Linklater’s dream-like rotoscoped odyssey is less of a story and more of a long, stoned conversation with yourself at 3 a.m. Drifting from one surreal scene to the next, Waking Life explores lucid dreaming, free will, existential dread, and the nature of reality. The visuals are woozy and hypnotic — filmed with real actors, then animated over in an experimental style that feels like your brain slowly melting. It’s technically a stoner movie, but it’s also an existential masterpiece. Smoke responsibly.
Inherent Vice (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson, 2014)
Paul Thomas Anderson’s adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s labyrinthine novel is maybe the closest cinema has ever come to actually being high. Joaquin Phoenix stars as Larry “Doc” Sportello, a perpetually baked private eye stumbling through the neon-lit ruins of 1970s Los Angeles. Plot-wise? Forget it. This movie is all mood: fried dialogue, hazy encounters, psychedelic visuals, and sudden bursts of violence and absurdity. A conspiracy thriller where the only thing you’re really chasing is a half-remembered dream.
Dazed and Confused (dir. Richard Linklater, 1993)
Before Waking Life (2001), Linklater gave us Dazed and Confused — the ultimate hangout movie. Set during the last day of school in 1976, it’s a sun-drenched ode to getting high, getting laid, and getting through the terrifying black hole of teenage boredom. Matthew McConaughey’s career-launching turn as sleazy burnout Wooderson (“Alright, alright, alright”) basically became a stoner mantra.
The Big Lebowski (dir. Joel and Ethan Coen, 1998)
Jeff Bridges’ The Dude is the undisputed king of cinematic stoners. After a case of mistaken identity leads to his favourite rug getting pissed on (“It really tied the room together”), he’s dragged into a wild kidnapping plot he can barely follow. Half noir parody, half existential comedy, all vibes. Probably the only film that makes bowling feel spiritual.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (dir. Terry Gilliam, 1998)
More a full-blown psychedelic meltdown than a stoner movie, but still essential. Johnny Depp channels Hunter S. Thompson’s drug-fueled gonzo journalist Raoul Duke as he spirals through Vegas with his lawyer, their brains rattling from an industrial cocktail of mescaline, ether, LSD, and of course, weed. Loud, chaotic, and beautifully depraved.
Friday (dir. F. Gary Gray, 1995)
Ice Cube and Chris Tucker give us a perfect day-in-the-life comedy about two dudes trying to survive the perils of South Central LA — mostly by smoking a lot of weed on a front porch. Friday is hilarious and deeply quotable, but it also quietly captures the frustrations and absurdities of life when you’re young, broke, and a little too high to care.
Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle (dir. Danny Leiner, 2004)
The perfect late-night stoner odyssey. Two weed-loving best friends (John Cho and Kal Penn) embark on a simple mission to satisfy their munchies — but their journey to White Castle turns into a chaotic all-night adventure filled with racist cops, a cheetah ride, and Neil Patrick Harris playing a drugged-up maniac version of himself. Glorious nonsense.
gotta add hiyouarecurrentlybeingrecorded.com <3