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Grass
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 19 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 5 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Documentary
Written by: Solomon Vesta
Directed by: Ron Mann
Release Date:
Theatrical: June 2, 2000
DVD: April 23, 2002
Running Time: 80 minutes, Color
Origin: Canada
Summary
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.
What The Critics Said
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...
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.
Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
This turns out to be an informative, involving, even sobering advocacy film.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Jeff Stark
A flashy, smoker-friendly documentary on the twisted history of the evil weed -- and the misguided drug war against marijuana.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
A revealing, often amusing, sometimes disturbing look at the history and politics of marijuana use in American society.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly David Chute
Aims for crowd-pleasing impact over subtlety. But it's still a welcome corrective to the current "zero tolerance" fad.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
Until something better comes along, we're just gonna have to keep the fires burning on this Ron Mann Joint.
Read Full Review >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.
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.
Read Full Review >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.
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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >New York Post Hannah Brown
Strident, unrepentantly one-sided but often entertaining.
Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan
It has as much of an ax to grind as the humorless and misguided bureaucrats it mocks.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 9.4 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Beercan gave it a7:
This was a very good documentary about a very worthy subject, but it errs by being terribly one-sided. It may be true that right-wing America is to blame for all those poor souls rotting away in jail for no good reason, but by not giving them a voice at all in the movie, the filmmakers miss a golden opportunity to give them enough rope to hang themselves. That said, much of this documentary - especially the first half - is informative, hilarious, and often shocking, with smooth narration by (surprise!) Woody Harrellson. The priceless early footage of teens smoking grass and then cutting themselves drinking from broken beer bottles is alone worth the price of admission.
Stefan M. gave it a 10:
Excellent. finally a true word. legalize!
Jeff W. gave it a 10:
Awesome.
