Kid Cannabis

Filmmaker John Stockwell's Kid Cannabis draws from a Rolling Stone article to tell the story of Nate (Jonathan Daniel Brown), a heavyset pizza delivery boy living in Coeur d'Alene, ID. Nate and his best friend, Topher (Kenny Wormald), enjoy smoking pot, so Nate devises a plan to make money off their hobby: they will find a Canadian supplier, smuggle product into the U.S., and recruit their friends as dealers. With funds from an Israeli-born investor (Ron Perlman), the money starts to roll in and the screen fills with cocaine, gangster rap, and close-ups of female body parts. Unfortunately for Nate, a rival kingpin (Aaron Yoo, overacting wildly) doesn't appreciate the competition and hires a pair of thugs to do Nate in, just as Nate's own team has started to turn against him for taking the biggest cut of the take. At this point, guns and knives enter the picture, but it's hard to even care what happens to any of the people in this shallow film, with the possible exception of Nate's mother (Amanda Tapping). One of the few bright spots here is John C. McGinley's grower, a man who truly enjoys his work and family—which makes it even harder to understand why he would get involved with two knuckleheads like Nate and Topher. Optional, at best. (K. Fennessy)