Up in Smoke (1978)

(On Cable TV, August 2019) It’s easy to dismiss Cheech and Chong’s Up in Smoke as merely a stoner movie (and it is!), but as the opening credit sequence shows, there’s some cinematographic cleverness behind the film—the film shouldn’t necessarily be dismissed by the hazy excesses or laziness of some of its successors. Loosely plotted but definitely evocative of the late-1970s California stoner scene, it’s a film that’s bound to be far less transgressive today (what with the stuff being legal or at least decriminalized widely) and also far less striking—after all, an entire subgenre followed. Still, Up in Smoke remains surprisingly funny even for straight-edge reviewers such as myself: the goofy, amiable tone still works wonders, and it’s not afraid to get completely absurd at times. The stick-it-to-the-man ethos is charmingly dated, and the two protagonists’ basic desires (including consensual flirting with nearly every available female character) remain likable. Despite the scattershot nature of the plot that goes from run-in with the law to smuggling “fiberweed” to a battle of the bands, there’s a pleasant craziness to the results. I found myself laughing far more often than I expected considering the almost infinite distance between myself and the stoner lifestyle. It certainly helps that leads Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong are so effortlessly likable.  As a movie buff, there are fascinating comparisons to make between the amiable stupidity of Up in Smoke and the aggressive, often-violent nature of some later examples of the stoner genre such as Pineapple Express and American Ultra. All things being equal, I’d rather hang out with the mellow Cheech and Chong than their degenerate successors.