Leaves of Grass, starring Edward Norton, is the most significant stoner movie of 2010 so far. Despite a limited release, it's worth seeing. Watch the trailer, read our review and interview with director Tim Blake Nelson, and listen to the movie's theme song, "Boys of Oklahoma."
REVIEW
In the spirit of Pineapple Express, Tim Blake Nelson's Leaves of Grass mixes stoner comedy with action and violence. Set in Oklahoma, Bill is tricked into visiting his estranged pot-growing twin brother, Brady (both played by Edward Norton). Brady owes big money to a dealer named Pug Rothbaum (Richard Dreyfuss), who staked him to his grow-op.
Brady certainly knows the difference between HPS and metal-halide lighting, which he brags about in an extended monologue. We see lots of (fake) plants and a novel spiral hydroponic system inside the large growroom. "You're looking at the motherfucking state of the art," he tells his painfully straight brother, who's a philosophy professor. "You want some?"
Plants look familiar? These are same ones that were used in Pineapple Express
Brady smokes a bong on the porch while Bill tries to plot his escape. No such luck. First he needs to visit their sickly mother, Daisy (Susan Sarandon). The main storyline is Brady scheming how not to pay back Rothbaum. But it's ultimately Josh (Ken Feinman), who Bill meets on the plane, that they have to worry about.
Nelson, who also plays Brady's bud Bolger, has a good feel for the subject - read about how he researched Leaves of Grasshere - but the movie slides off the rails about halfway through and never gets back to the original comic premise of identical brothers who have nothing in common.
Leaves of Grass opened on Sept. 17 in limited release. The DVD will be released on Oct. 12.
TRAILER
INTERVIEW
Opening today after a five-month delay, Leaves of Grass stars Edward Norton in a double role as twin brothers Brady and Bill Kincaid. Brady's a pot grower, Bill's a philosophy professor. Back in April, CelebStoner's Steve Bloom interviewed director Tim Blake Nelson about his stoner film.
How did you learn about cannabis cultivation so you put it in Leaves of Grass?
I researched it. I watched Jorge Cervantes’ videos. Those were very helpful. I read a lot, reams of material. I cherry-picked what was most interesting. I’m very detail oriented and I love production design. I like for stuff to be meticulously accurate - because even if somebody doesn’t know that world, if you do your film projects with that sort of confidence in the material, then it’s just going to be much more believable. So I was really serious about the research. I read in High Times – the guy writing about it was talking about certain inaccuracies. I don’t agree.
You mean the interview with Ed Norton?
Yeah.
In the movie, the grow room has a lot of budding plants in the back and the spiral system with seedlings in the front. They would need separation and different lighting.
Different lighting regimens, but not different lighting bulbs.
The average person is going to be blown away by what they see. Advanced Nutrients is credited at the end. Did they construct the spiral system?
They basically gave us all the equipment we wanted for that credit. The spiral system we built. The production designer found the model for that at an Ag department at a college in Louisiana. When we saw it we said we've got to do a version of that - it's perfect for Brady. We put those motors in there so it would spin, which it does. That was actually our own conceit. But it would work. It would be a great way to do that. It’s a hydroponic technique. In High Times, Ed says the big (fake) plants were the same ones in Pineapple Express.
Edward’s girlfriend was the producer of Pineapple Express, so ww were able to snag those. But the close-up of the bud - that’s the real deal.
That’s pretty rare. Most of the time, in these movies, they’re afraid to do anything real.
No, it’s the real deal. It was really, really important to me to have a close-up of the bud and to have a speech about the bud as if it were a platonic form. Each brother is a classicist. Brady is really talking about the platonic form of pot. And he uses the word “form.” That’s intentional. It’s subconsciously meant to ping with the initiated as a Plato allusion.
There’s a lot of violence in the movie. Do you think this could be a turn-off factor with the audience?
I don’t think so. I think that generally the people who smoke pot are healthfully subversive. Violence is a subversive force in most narratives. So I think there’s going to be a healthy sensitivity that will accrue to the film’s benefit rather than it’s detriment. Which movies influenced you to make Leaves of Grass?
I prefer stoner movies that are stoner movies on the way to larger ambition. Easy Rider to me is the quintessential stoner movie, because it’s really about the cultural trend. And while it’s incredibly funny and surprising, it’s really a pretty serious movie. Its ambitions are gorgeously extreme. I would want to put our film not in the Easy Rider tradition, because we’re not a road movie, but in the tradition of stoner comedies that are more serious in nature.
Any other movies that might have had an impact?
Everything from Crimes and Misdemeanors, which is a Woody Allen movie that has a philosopher in it, to The Big Lebowski. I’m eager for Leaves of Grass to carve out its own area - even while it’s certainly influenced by other filmmakers.
Is there going to be a big release or is it going to be small, indie style?
Indie style. We’re getting the sort of response and attention that gives us hope for it to go out to a nice-sized audience, but we’ll have to see. It’ll depend on what kind of press it gets. I love the song that runs during the credits, “The Boys from Oklahoma (Roll Their Joints All Wrong)” by Cross Canada Ragweed. Where’d you find it?
The production designer and I were in a bar in Southeastern Oklahoma, in Idabel, and somebody put it on the jukebox. I said, “That’s going in the movie.” Where do you stand on the issue of marijuana legalization?
The Libertarian in me would say that I would like for drugs to be legalized. But I’m on the fence, because it does however make me nervous to contemplate that it being illegal does inhibit at least the amount of use. Maybe I’m wrong about that. So I’m really on the fence. I really am. I’m just not sure Have you heard about tax-cannabis initiative in California?
I certainly think if it’s going on anyway and it can be taxed, that’s probably healthy.
Do you smoke pot?
Yes. Not regularly, but I certainly do it and enjoy it. I wouldn’t have made this move if I had no experience with it. The movie has a lot of my favorite items in it, be they ideas or paraphernalia.
Is there a political message in Leaves of Grass?
No, more philosophical. I don’t personally have a political axe to grind about marijuana and it being legalized. The movie’s really more about trying to find balance in life. Now, I love pot. And I don’t have issues with people smoking it. I’d be a hypocrite. But that said, I’m not beating any drums.
