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A homegrown Austin pick at the Austin Film Festival |
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Written by Steve Muccini
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Another local filmmaker makes the cut 
The stoner film. We have all seen our share of the halfwit stoners who find themselves in the most precarious and highly unlikely predicaments. They typically involve some bad guys, the authorities, hookers, pimps, drug dealers and straight men. We grew up on Cheech and Chong and their instant classics. Just 3 words, "Dave's not here" springs to mind one of the funniest scenes of the genre. Although the legalization battle has simmered for over 50 years, the kindest of herbs seems to have taken its seat closer to political center stage than ever before. At this year's Austin Film Festival, you will see another take on the topic. An actual character study of a stoner instead of the ridiculous portrayal of stereotypical stoner lifestyle. Yet another home grown Austin film, Stoner will make its worldwide premiere at 3 PM on Saturday October 24th at The Independent and again on Tuesday the 27th at the Alamo Draft House Lake Creek at 7 PM. So how exactly does a movie called "Stoner" approach character development instead of simply portraying a bunch of "characters". Compared to genre favorites like Half Baked, Friday and How High, Michael Greene, the film's writer and director offers this. Our movie starts a lot smaller than those. It's a character study of a stoner, Michael, who lacks self-confidence and has dreams to be something but can't turn his thoughts into action. As the movie progresses, it turns into a kind of "stoner movie," but the bedrock of the movie is personal and small. You don't have to be a stoner to get it.
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