Grown Ups Gettin High On Film

Black Book Mag
Old People Smoking Pot on Film: A List
By Willa Paskin
December 11, 2009

Old People Smoking Pot on Film: A List It’s Complicated, the forthcoming romantic comedy starring Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin, is the latest entry in the middle aged women like movies and they have a disposable income, and maybe we should make some for movies for them, because, like, they exist genre. If you are not distracted by the hundreds of Astier de Villatte plates and oppressively aspirational, ultra-bougie décor, the film is pretty irresistible, as are most of the movies starring late-period Streep, who is so fully comfortable, self confident and over whether you like her or not, that you can’t do anything but like her. In this movie, Streep (60), Martin (64), and later Baldwin (51), plus the younger John Krasinski, go to a party and get all giddy on the wacky tobaccy. (Baldwin displays some serious smoking skills when he deftly shotguns Krasinski.) We take this occasion to chronicle other great moments in grownups getting high on film. A by no means complete list after the jump.

Kevin Spacey, American Beauty – After a rousing work out, Spaceman buys weed from his next door neighbor because he is so totally over the lame rules of suburbia. Sadly, his neighbor’s closeted dad thinks something more inappropriate is going on and Spacey ends up getting shot dead. Don’t smoke pot you guys.

Susan Sarandon, Stepmom – Julia Roberts gets all up in Sarandon’s face, like, “You are a sneaky bad person! Why are you smoking the evil weed! You are a mom!” But then gets smacked down when Sarandon reveals she has the cancer. Then everyone dances to Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.

Ben Kingsley, The Wackness – Kingsley trades therapy for pot, and other drugs, tho he had to be taught how to operate a bong properly on set.

Bette Midler, What Women Want – Midler plays another pot smoking shrink, this one Mel Gibson’s. She’s also a bad influence who gets Meg Ryan’s lips high in the remake of The Women.

Jeff Bridges, The Big Lebowski – Duh.

Dan Hedaya, Dick – In this comedic reimagining of the Watergate scandal, Dick Nixon eats some pot-laced cookies and deletes 18 minutes of the Watergate tapes. Again, don’t smoke the pot you guys.

Bob Saget, Half Baked – A lot of people get high in Half Baked, but Bob Saget wins.

Robert DeNiro, Jackie Brown and Cape Fear – So nice he did it twice. In Jackie Brown, De Niro can’t keep his smoke down and in Cape Fear he tokes with Juliette Lewis while being incredibly menacing and freaky.