Grass

Is smoking pot bad for you? Does it lead to murder and mayhem? Is "Mary Jane" really the Devil's weed?

You're not going to find any answers in the Ron Mann documentary Grass, a film rich in archival footage of celebrity "heads and feds" stating their cases for and against the drug but lacking a fair presentation of both arguments. Grass is so overtly pro-pot that it ends up being just as narrow-minded as the anti-pot propaganda it ridicules. And with actor and hemp activist Woody Harrelson narrating, its arguments carry as much moral and philosophical weight as a good Cheech & Chong movie. Which is too bad, because Grass does expose how harsh and ludicrous many of our drug laws are.

With campy, psychedelic animation by artist Paul Mavrides framing pot footage gleaned from Hollywood, television, and government anti-drug films (most from the '40s, '50s, and '60s), Grass is geared toward an audience that's ingesting more than just Junior Mints. The decriminalization argument is so strong that a simple presentation of the facts would have made Mann's point for him. Instead, his attempts to lampoon the anti-pot political right send Grass's credibility up in smoke.

-- Scott Kathan