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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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Grass
Unapix Films
FILM:
MPAA RATING: R for drug content
Starring
Woody Harrelson (narrator),
Harry S. Robins,
and
Richard Nixon
Excellent documentary on the ever-changing series of official truths regarding the horrors caused by the drug.
| GENRE(S): |
Documentary
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Solomon Vesta
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Ron Mann
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: April 23, 2002
Video: April 10, 2001
Theatrical: June 2, 2000
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
80 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
Canada |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
88
Philadelphia Inquirer
Steven Rea
A spirited, smart-alecky look at the ongoing conflict between a government that wants to eliminate pot and a public that wants to smoke it.
80
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
This turns out to be an informative, involving, even sobering advocacy film.
80
Salon.com
Jeff Stark
A flashy, smoker-friendly documentary on the twisted history of the evil weed -- and the misguided drug war against marijuana.
80
Film.com
John Hartl
Grass is often closer to the sobering tone of the PBS show than it is to the silly "Weed," with its stoned, barely literate potheads discussing the quality of their dope.
75
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
This jovial tour through changing attitudes toward cannibis is so plugged into pothead logic that the opening credits are rerun at the end.
75
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
A revealing, often amusing, sometimes disturbing look at the history and politics of marijuana use in American society.
70
The New York Times
A.O. Scott
With its pointed narrative, the film makes its case with a minimum of pushiness and a subtle nod to its crowd.
70
TV Guide
Ken Fox
He's (Mann) a solid historian and this film is full of fascinating facts, but he's a cultural critic at heart, and a good one at that.
70
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
It's as entertaining and informative as anything Mann's ever done, and as good an example of grass humor as you're likely to find anywhere.
70
LA Weekly
David Chute
Aims for crowd-pleasing impact over subtlety. But it's still a welcome corrective to the current "zero tolerance" fad.
67
Austin Chronicle
Marjorie Baumgarten
Until something better comes along, we're just gonna have to keep the fires burning on this Ron Mann Joint.
67
Portland Oregonian
Shawn Levy
So heavy-handed and blatant in its posturings and so incomplete at 73 minutes that you simply feel like you've been harangued more than educated.
67
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sean Axmaker
Charged with raucous energy and a satirical slant, this witty history lesson is preaching to the converted, sharing a knowing wink with everyone who's ever inhaled.
63
Chicago Tribune
Michael Wilmington
A well-researched and well-illustrated, if often facetious, record of the U.S. government's longtime war on cannabis. And while it's a little too single-minded, it's both fun to watch and quite informative.
60
Village Voice
J. Hoberman
Grass's relentless hard sell ultimately grows wearisome. Although only 80 minutes, it ends, and not a moment too soon, with a pot legalization rally that might well be reproduced outside the theater.
50
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
Grass is not much as a documentary. It's a cut-and-paste job, assembling clips from old and new anti-drug films and alternating them with pro-drug footage from the Beats, the flower power era and so on.
50
San Francisco Chronicle
Edward Guthmann
Rich with statistics and snazzy visuals, but it ignores those larger questions and, as a result, feels a tad naïve.
50
New York Post
Hannah Brown
Strident, unrepentantly one-sided but often entertaining.
30
Washington Post
Michael O'Sullivan
It has as much of an ax to grind as the humorless and misguided bureaucrats it mocks.
 The average user rating for this movie is 9.2 (out of 10) based on 4 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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