Culture-Editor Approved Films to Watch With Your Friends on 4/20
From mind-bending visuals to knee-slapping comedies, here’s a list of 10 movies the whole crew can enjoy.
It’s 10 p.m. You’re blazed out of your mind sitting on the floor of your friend's apartment, knuckles deep in a bag of mint Milanos. It’s getting to that part of the night where you’re all a bit too blurry-eyed and brain-lagged to do anything but watch a movie. Decision-making isn’t anyone’s forté and the idea of toggling through Netflix and Hulu seems like an insurmountable task. Casey wants to watch a horror film but Mary is too paranoid. Pretentious Jim wants to watch 2001: A Space Odyssey, but Kubrick standom aside, can we just admit that movie is tediously slow? You’re almost ready to give up all faith and resort to the lowest hanging fruit: Youtube. Don’t give up so fast!
A cursory google search of “films to watch while high” tends to yield the same results—“Pineapple Express,” “The Big Lebowski,” “Dazed & Confused.” Sure they’re all excellent films, but why would I want to watch a movie about stoners when I’m stoned? That’s a real hat on a hat if you ask me. You want something that’s mesmerizing but not boring. Shocking but not too scary. Thought-provoking but not hard to follow. So whether you’re in a silly-goofy-mood or stare-at-your-hand-and-ponder-existence high, here is a list of movies the whole friend group can enjoy.
Holy Mountain (1973)
Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky
Chilean-French avant-garde filmmaker Jodorowsky is a master of full-tilt, psychedelic madness. Throw on this film in the background of a party or get lost in the arresting visuals. The staged vignettes and symmetry make Wes Anderson films look like amateur hour. If you’re having trouble following the plot, it’s not because you’re high, it’s a rambling mess—but that’s beside the point. Whether you’re stoned or the DD, the visuals will leave you speechless.
Weed Recommendation: 1:1 CBD:THC hybrid edible
How high should I be? 4/10.This movie is trippy enough without much help. If you get too stoned it could give you Catholic school flashbacks with all the Christian imagery.
House (1977)
Director: Nobuhiko Obayashi
This Japanese experimental comedy horror is far from the “haunted house” horror it’s advertised to be. The plot follows a schoolgirl and six of her friends as they travel to her aunt’s house in the country. Lo and behold, supernatural forces within the house devour the girls one by one. With a cast of amateur actors and ludicrously cartoonish special effects, this cult classic is totally unique and incredibly funny. Complete with cat ghosts, bleeding clocks, and killer pianos, the theatrics rival Scooby-doo. If pretentious Jim thinks it looks dumb, just tell him it’s in the Criterion Collection.
Weed Recommendation: Sativa-forward joint
How high should I be? 5/10. Don’t get high enough to get paranoid—when the special effects kick in you’ll want to be in the headspace to laugh, not hide.
Valley Girl (1983)
Director: Martha Coolidge
If you’re looking for something a little more light-hearted and kitschy, go for the teen romantic comedy Valley Girl. Very—and I mean very—loosely based on Romeo & Juliet, the plot is centered around a love story between popular Valley girl Julie and a Hollywood punk played by a young Nicholas Cage. The script turns up the totally bitchin’ ‘80s slang with lines like “Man, he’s just like trippin’-dicular, you know?” Young Nick Cage truly gives it his all in his first leading performance and it does not disappoint.
Weed recommendation: Indica-forward joint
How high should I be? 7/10. This is great for sinking into your friend's basement couch on a sleepover, eating Oreos, and braiding each other’s hair.
Lair of the White Worm (1988)
Director: Ken Russell
This supernatural horror comedy got me hooked just from the name alone. This cult classic follows the events that transpire after the skull of a serpent is unearthed by an archaeologist. An ancient priestess searches for the serpent she worships while tormenting the residents of an English manor. The plot really doesn’t matter because the performances and B-movie horror effects are knee-slapping funny. Bonus treat: A young Hugh Grant playing Lord James D’Ampton.
Weed recommendation: 1:1 Hybrid edible
How high should I be? 4/10.This movie is a kitschy horror but it’s freaky enough where I wouldn’t risk getting too paranoid—especially if you’re afraid of snakes.
Waiting for Guffman (1996)
Director: Christopher Guest
If you’re the type of high where you want to be reduced to a fit of giggles, watch Waiting for Guffman. All Christopher Guest movies (Spinal Tap, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind) are peak comedies to watch sober or stoned, but this one has my heart. An ensemble cast of expert improvisers Eugene Levy, Parker Posey, Catherine O’Hara, and more, residents of small town Blaine, Missouri, put on a play to impress Broadway producer Mort Guffman (a spin on Beckett’s play Waiting for Gadot). Guest plays Broadway-loving drama teacher Corky St. Clair and says lines like “I hate you and I hate your ass face” —this movie is endlessly quotable. Special shoutout to the song about the stool factory.
Weed recommendation: Sativa-forward joint
How high should I be? 8/10. Get as high as you want, this movie will have you out of breath from laughing so hard.
The Fifth Element (1997)
Director: Luc Besson
With costumes designed by Jean-Paul Gaultier, this film is a visual feast. It’s a sci-fi action film that revolves around—you guessed it—saving planet Earth. Bruce Willis plays a former special forces major and taxi driver who joins forces with a mysterious orange-haired woman that falls into his flying cab one day. The plot is too convoluted to explain, with characters named ‘Zorg’ ‘Fhloston’ and ‘Plavalaguna’—just take my word that it’s a thrill ride. I’d say 90% of the fandom surrounding this film is the Tumblr’d-to-oblivion style of Mila Jojovich’s character Leeloo. Oh and yes, the blue alien singing opera.
Weed recommendation: Sativa-forward edible
How high should I be? 6/10.There’s a lot of action in this movie so don’t get so stoned you’re always asking, “Wait, who is that?”
Being John Malkovich (1999)
Director: Spike Jonze
This film strikes the perfect balance of daring absurdity and expertly sharp dialogue. Written by the neurotic, self-deprecating genius Charlie Kaufman paired with the surreal directorial debut of Spike Jonze, this film is a mainstay in cinema canon. The plot centers around a down-on-his-luck puppeteer (John Cusack) who finds a portal that leads to John Malkovich’s mind. John Malkovich is played by none other than John Malkovich in one of the most self-reflexive, profoundly satirical, and delightfully unhinged films I’ve ever seen.
Weed recommendation: Sativa-forward joint
How high should I get? 5/10. Again, don’t get so stoned you can’t follow a plot. Get a good “mind high” going and the dialogue and performances are an absolute treat.
Southland Tales (2006)
Director: Richard Kelly
Remember Donnie Darko? Of course you do. Remember who directed it? Probably not. After directing Donnie Darko, Richard Kelly bit off way more than he could chew with his sophomore project Southland Tales. With a cast of literally everyone—Sarah Michelle Gellar, Justin Timberlake, Dwayne Johnson, Amy Poehler, Janeane Garofalo, and too many more to count—it’s hard to believe no one has heard of this film. Initially planned to be a nine-part experience paired with a series of graphic novels, the resulting film is an editing hack job that clocks in around 2 hours and 40 minutes. To be totally honest, I’ve never made it through the whole film, but it is a jaw-dropping trainwreck that can really only be seen stoned with a lot of friends.
Weed recommendation: Pass around any joint
How high should I get? 6/10. This movie is a durational performance for the viewer so get as high as you want and just try to figure out what’s happening.Fateful Findings (2013)
Director: Neil Breen
If you are a fan of The Room, then buckle up, because this is some next-level shit. I first learned about this film from listening to the podcast How Did This Get Made? After tracking it down on YouTube, I realized it was even more magnificently bad than I could have ever imagined. Former Las Vegas real estate agent Neil Breen not only wrote, directed, and starred in this supernaturally terrible film, but he also self-financed and produced the project. With cartoonishly unrealistic acting and dialogue, this homemade movie is so bad it’s almost hypnotizing. If you play this for your stoned friends their jaws will be on the floor.
Weed recommendation: 1:1 Hybrid edible
How high should I get? 7/10. Honestly, this might be the scariest film on the list. Don’t even tell your stoned friends what it is, just start playing it and see how they react.
Sorry to Bother You (2018)
Director: Boots Riley
This sci-fi, satire, capitalist-critique fever dream is sharply funny and totally off-the-wall. Director Boots Riley describes Sorry to Bother You as, “an absurdist dark comedy with aspects of magical realism and science fiction inspired by the world of telemarketing.” With an incredible cast of LaKeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, and a particularly ludicrous performance from the pre-cannibal-era Armie Hammer, this film is a genre-bending thrill ride. If you’re looking for a film with visuals, action, and intellectual substance, this one’s for you.
Weed recommendation: Sativa-forward joint
How high should you get? 6/10. Get a good “mind high” going because there are a lot of moving parts in this film. Warning: it will set off pretentious Jim on a diatribe about capitalism that no one wants to hear.
Want more stories like this?
A Brief History of 4/20
Our Editors' 12 Favorite Halloween Movies
My Vagina Got High and It Was Glorious