The Wrong Girls

Almost every stoner comedy since 1998 has lived in the shadow of The Big Lebowski, reassessed as a masterpiece in the years since its disappointing initial run. So if you're trying to add to the canon, why not borrow some of its keys elements in a deliberate acknowledgement of its power? A few hapless friends thrust into an adventure they did not ask for amidst a world they didn't know existed, a cast of (reasonably) well-known character actors playing strange and amusing supporting roles the protagonists can bounce off of, and a trio of Nihilists. Well, they're Danish instead of German, and their monochromatic uniforms have been inverted, but they play the same role: a seemingly menacing force in the way of our heroes accomplishing their goal, but whose incompetence foils their aggression time and time again.

But writer/director Dylan Meyer's debut feature isn't a rip off of the cult classic, just a nod to it, so that's where the plot similarities end.

While its dumb but entertaining farce puts it in league with Dude, Where's My Car?, its structure calls to mind the kind of paranoid thriller where the main characters come into possession of something they shouldn't, and have to spend the rest of the movie figuring out what it is, who wants it, and whether returning it to them is the right thing to do. Of course, Frankie (Kristen Stewart) and Molly (Alia Shawkat) are both huge stoners, living in a haze as much as possible, inventing new contraptions for smoking weed (the Bong-o-Tron) and new recipes for consuming it (brownies with a secret ingredient: blue cheese). They're not dumb - Frankie is a Stanford dropout, and Molly seems to do some bookkeeping on the side. But the constant bake increases their absent-mindedness and tendency to lose time. That mixes with their general "just roll with it" attitude over this particular weekend to get them into more trouble than they know what to do with.

Read my full review on Pop Culture Maniacs.