[yasr_overall_rating]
The world’s biggest stoner, Oliver, loses a high profile car, forcing him to steal an ice cream truck and enlist his wacky friends to help track down the thief before it’s too late.
Oliver (Seth Cassell), the protagonist of this stoner comedy, gets high. Announced as a 26-year-old loafer (well, technically he is employed at his father’s car wash), he appears to be in his mid-30s, whereas his young adult musketeer-looking father (Pete Gardner), who insists on being called “Jeff, not dad,” dates a model, Jennifer (Briana Lane), and turns out to be 10 years older than his son. That gives us the first glimpse on why “Oliver, Stoned” is so messed up.
Both these components, however, don’t construe Oliver’s flow. His preeminent problem is an exceptional ability to screw up every single task he’s been given, whether it’s washing a car, handling flyers, talking to women (of course), not to mention the fact that he lives with his dad and once interferes with what’s supposed to be the best sex in his father’s life. One morning Oliver gets high (oh really?) and drives a fancy client’s car with its windows and rooftop open through a car wash. Jeff catches Oliver in an attempt to vacuum the moisture out of it and gets so bashed he almost falls off his beloved chair. Hence, Dad grants Oliver the last chance to improve before sending him to his mother’s house in Tuscon, Arizona (God forbid!). Riding an opulent Mercury to a car wash, he stops to purchase some ice cream from a bunch of local rascal skateboarders, and the car gets stolen by a guy named E-smoke, the infinite lover of e-cigarettes.
At this point what seemed to be a hopelessly tedious story picks up enough to become a watchable experience for a patient audience that survived through the first 20 minutes, and genre fans. Although, it’s missing the boldness and recklessness of such stoner gems as “Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood” (apart from Loc Dog’s hairstyle, he was a crash test driver) or “Harold and Kumar,” or cult Cheech and Chong in “Still Smokin’,” it has its noble laugh moments. Oliver meets his future girlfriend Megan (Brea Grant) when he runs over her scooter in front of the house of his drug-dealer friend Benson (Jim Mahoney). When a blind clown asks Megan to touch her boobs in exchange for the info on an ice-cream guy, Oliver bravely offers his furry chest for the weirdo’s pleasure. When Jeff realizes that Jennifer is basically a rapacious busty pterodactyl (an analogy inspired by Benson’s obsession with a theory of empowered reptiles), he loudly squeezes a bottle of sunscreen on her belly and throws her “money making” body in the pool. Ultimately, each of the characters come to the realization that weed, sex or success, are not as important as human relationships.
The film’s director, Tom Morris, builds his story deliberately and works through the details; he evidently shamelessly relishes the homage he tributes to his idols of late 1990s: Bay’s “Armageddon” (the gang of friends leaving Oliver’s garage in slo-mo, for their fight with E-Smoke) and Aronofsky’s “Requiem for a Dream” (his characters smoke similarly to how the young Leto and Konnely were doing heroine), and some others for film lovers to discover. However, he doesn’t get distracted by quoting and searches for his own style, which hopefully will evolve into a solid recognizable “handwriting.”
Last, but not least, why “Oliver, Stoned?” Is it because Seth Cassell vaguely reminds us of the real young Oliver, or is it an inside joke between a group of film-loving friends? Oliver Stone himself admitted many times that he had solid relationships with drugs, “they hurt him and they helped him.” They definitely haven’t helped much the creators of “Oliver, Stoned” with this movie and its characters. However, what started as “Oliver, Stoned” ends as “Oliver, Loved” and that gives us hope, that Tom Morris will keep searching for his signature filmmaking style.
Available now on DVD and Digital
