Altered states

Five classic stoner films

This column is only legal with a doctor’s prescription.

The Big Lebowski (1998)

This Coen Bros. classic follows the adventures of perma-baked Los Angeleno, Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski, who stumbles into a Raymond Chandler-esque mystery after two gangsters mistakenly rough him up and pee on his rug. 

The supporting cast includes a master class lesson in comic timing by John Goodman as The Dude’s overbearing, Vietnam vet, best-friend Walter Sobchak (“Nihilists? Fuck me. I mean, say what you want about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it’s an ethos.”)—among unforgettable turns from Julianne Moore, John Turturro, and Steve Buscemi.  Endlessly quotable, “Lebowski” is the Coen Bros. funniest film, no matter your state of mind.  

Peak Scene: After being slipped a mickey by Ben Gazzara’s Jackie Treehorn, The Dude abides in a hallucinatory dream cocktail of bowling and erotic enticement, set to Kenny Roger’s “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In).”   

TRON (1982)

Flynn (Jeff Bridges) is a disgruntled hacker who, with the help of two programmer friends, breaks into his erstwhile employer ENCOM. Their objective is to steal the proof that his former rival, Dillinger (David Warner), took credit for a series of successful videogames Flynn created. When Dillinger’s creation, the Master Control Program, learns what Flynn is up to, it digitizes Flynn and brings him into the wonderfully dated Game Grid to do battle with other captive “programs.”

Though this and “Lebowski” do make for a kind double feature, this isn’t about Jeff Bridges. As a teenager, I conflated “TRON,” cloudy weekend afternoons, and herb into a nerdy comfort food with an 8-bit flavor all its own.

Peak Scene: Pretty much everything after Flynn finds himself in the handcrafted glow of Disney’s Syd Mead-designed computer netherworld.

“Flash Gordon” (1980)
Clearly these are personal preferences. And often, cheesy sci-fi is the jam on my toast.

Flash Gordon (Sam Jones) and Dr. Hans Zarkov (Topol) must rescue Dale Arden (Melody Anderson) from the clutches of Ming the Merciless (Max von Sydow), and save the Earth from total annihilation. 

So simple, yet such an embarrassment of riches. Lo-fi effects and garish costuming are faithful to the original serial, brought to ostentatious life by Academy Award winner Danilo Donati. Performances range from the laughable to the divine, by a cast including Timothy Dalton, von Sydow, Topol, and the divinely over-the-top bellowing of Brian Blessed. Then there’s the bombastic soundtrack by Queen which most agree is the only legitimately good thing about this movie. No matter how you slice it, “Flash Gordon” is the life of the Havarti.

Peak Scene: Out of a target rich environment, I’ll take Flash, Zarkov, and Dale passing through the psychedelic Sea of Fire to crash land on Mongo and meet Ming’s minions.

“Fantastic Planet” (1973)

If a stoner on death row had to write a movie to avoid execution, something like this French animated oddity would probably get him or her pardoned.

On the planet Ygam, a race of giant, blue humanoids called Draags keep diminutive humans, dubbed Oms, as pets—often cruelly. When a domesticated Om, Terr, inadvertently gets an education via Draag technology, he breaks free into the wild, where he finds colonies of wild Oms. The Draags, who consider wild Oms vermin, begin summary fumigation. Terr, fighting for his people, leads them in revolt.

An allegory for American slavery, creators René Laloux and Roland Topor (who’s 1988 film “Gandahar” mines similarly trippy poli-sci-fi territory) craft a singular world, with vibrantly original character and art design. Their imaginative details, from the flora and fauna to the strange technology, presage the kind of world building James Cameron achieved with “Avatar”—minus the overkill. It’s like nothing you’ve seen before.

Peak Scene: Literally every frame.

“2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968)—This one is probably more for those who like mushrooms on their pizza. Still, there’s no denying that asking the deep, metaphysical questions that sentient humans have about the nature of life in a vast, impassive, and unknown universe (divorced from a literal God) fits nicely into any mental fugue.

A breadcrumb trail of ominous, obelisk-like Monoliths lead a team of astronauts to investigate a newly-discovered, gigantic version floating near Jupiter. Their onboard, helpful AI buddy HAL promptly goes insane and kills everyone except for Dave Bowman (Kier Dullea), who ultimately embarks on a final journey to the beginning of Creation. Though not the Judeo-Christian kind.

This is Kubrick’s masterpiece, and it’s still a visual stunner. Suffused with his cold distance, he winds the unnerving story of a serial-killing supercomputer with an epic treatise about the arc of human evolution and what the soul has to look forward to once it’s reborn into a multi-dimensional afterlife. Or something.

Peak Scene: Let’s just say the epic “Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite” finale was really designed for a 1968 audience.

For more from Joe, read his review of "Midnight Special."