Pubdate: Tue, 22 Apr 2014
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Page: B5
Copyright: 2014 Times Colonist
Contact: http://www2.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/letters.html
Website: http://www.timescolonist.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481
Author: Michael D. Reid

KID CANNABIS EXUDES PERVASIVE IRONY

[image caption]
SHOT NEAR PROSPECT LAKE: Sarcasm will resonate with those filmgoers
pushing for the legalization of pot

There are many amusing sequences in Kid Cannabis, but one sure to
resonate with local viewers is when teenage drug smuggler Nate Norman
has his The Wizard of Oz moment.

When Nate realizes he has successfully snuck across the border from
Idaho into B.C., he utters his twist on "We're not in Kansas anymore,"
Dorothy's declaration after landing in Oz.

"Kilometres! We're in Canada, man!" the pudgy pothead says, spotting a
"Maximum 30 km/hour" sign on the side of the road after a long
wilderness trek.

The road depicting a patch of the Kootenays en route to Creston was
one of several locations near Prospect Lake, including the lakefront
home of producer Corey Large's family, where in the summer of 2012
writer-director John Stockwell shot his true-life drama which opened
in Los Angeles, New York and Toronto and as a Video-on-Demand release
on iTunes and through Rogers and Shaw. It's about the chubby high
school dropout and pizza delivery boy who built a multimillion-dollar
pot-trafficking empire.

As impressive a feat as it was for Large to persuade his partners to
choose the capital region as the sole location for Stockwell's film
inspired by Mark Binelli's 2005 Rolling Stone piece, Kid Cannabis
stands on its own, with more going for it than just recognizable
visuals and big production values achieved on a shoestring.

His homegrown film is to weed what The Wolf of Wall Street was to
securities fraud and corruption, complete with its unrepentant
protagonist's swaggering voice-over and a rising number of scantily
clad girls, guns and drugs in the picture as the Coeur d'Alene
entrepreneur and self-described loser persuasively played by Jonathan
Daniel Brown becomes a cocky drug kingpin.

Although Stockwell goes too far while preaching to the converted -
"It's just pot," says Nate's teary-eyed mom (Amanda Tapping), who had
turned a blind eye to what gave Nate enough money to buy her a
waterfront home, when he surrenders to authorities to protect her -
Kid Cannabis is also infused with irony that filmgoers pushing for
legalization will appreciate.

While Large doesn't smoke pot the film's Victoria-born producer was
struck by the irony of a 19-year-old kid getting a 12-year sentence
with no chance of parole for a decade "for selling some weed" while
the real "wolf of Wall Street," Jordan Belfort, "does just 22 months
in a country club" after defrauding hundreds of clients.

The rags-to-riches drama's chief assets include its pervasive irony,
as when a knowing B.C. highway patrol officer, after pulling Nate and
Topher over, suggests they head to Nelson if they're seeking serious
weed, or when the wife of John Grefard, a fanatical marijuana grower
and user, says she's glad her husband quit his "nasty habit" - smoking
two packs of cigarettes a day.

One of the film's highlights is the great character actor John C.
McGinley's killer performance as this eccentric supplier and family
man whose near-religious devotion to the highgrade weed he cultivates
is amusingly obvious when he practically makes love to a plant while
doing his sales pitch - "Look at that thick stem ... that tight bud cluster."

The other scene-stealer is Ron Perlman, surprisingly restrained yet
menacing as Barry Lerner, a smooth, big-time foreign drug dealer with
a chain of cellphone stores as his cover.  
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D