Green's Big Joke: 'Pineapple Express'

by Brett Parker

It happens all the time: a true-blue indie filmmaker dabbles in mainstream Hollywood fare to keep momentum going for future cash and dependability. It appears to be what David Gordon Green is doing with Pineapple Express. Green is the director of solemn and thoughtful indie fare, such as All the Real Girls, Undertow, and Snow Angels, and now he’s directing a “stoner-action comedy” created by the Judd Apatow gang. Quite a change of pace, right? The funny thing is that although he’s playing with Hollywood formulas here, he’s also giving them the finger at the same time. The funniest thing about the film is the way Green trumps up specific movie clichés and exposes how absurd and ridiculous they really are.

The film follows the misadventures of a court process server named Dale Denton (Seth Rogen) and his spaced-out drug dealer, Saul (James Franco). One day, Dale buys an extremely rare stash of dope from Saul called Pineapple Express. It’s a special blend of marijuana so rare that to smoke it, as Saul observes, would be like “killing a Unicorn!” After buying the weed, Dale smokes it on his way to serve papers to a shady character named Ted Jones (Gary Cole). As Dale pulls up to Ted’s house smoking a joint, he observes Ted and a Female Cop (Rosie Perez) murdering an Asian man from the living room window. Panicked by the situation, Dale tosses the weed and makes a noisy getaway, drawing attention from Ted. Scared and frantic, Dale escapes to Saul’s apartment to sort through the situation. It is realized that Ted is a drug dealer who sold Pineapple Express to Saul through a middleman. So rare is the weed that Ted will undoubtedly realize that whoever witnessed the murder has ties with Saul. Fearing for their lives, Dale and Saul grab some snacks and hit the road.

Stoned and paranoid, the duo tries to figure out a way to save their lives. They would drive far away, but Dale’s car battery dies after a drug-induced trip to the woods. They go to Ted’s middleman, Red (Danny McBride), for information but then quickly discover that he may be assisting in having them both killed. The plot only thickens when Asian drug lords and Dale’s 18-year-old girlfriend (Amber Heard) turn up to create more mischief. If there’s one positive thing to come out of this situation, it’s the realization both Dale and Saul come to that they just might be best friends.

Pineapple Express has everything you could expect from a typical stoner comedy, yet we feel a cinematic grace to the material that we rarely see. Most of the film consists of prolonged, free-flowing scenes of Dale and Saul getting stoned and having lengthy conversations. Green seems to take a special interest in this dialogue, for he hangs the camera on it and gives it a late-60’s Easy Rider vibe that makes these scenes feel more important than they really are. They may be lengthy, but we truly enjoy these scenes because of the nice comic timing between Rogen and Franco. We expect Rogen to be hilariously competent in this kind of role, yet it’s Franco who is surprisingly funny and convincing as Saul. Franco is known for mostly dramatic roles (notably Harry in the Spider-Man films) and is probably the last person you’d expect to play a zany pothead. He owns the role, with his long hair and pajama pants, and gives the funniest performance in the film. He creates a cinematic stoner for the ages that can stand with Cheech and Chong.

The film contains so many familiar Hollywood themes such as drugs, car chases, shoot-outs, fist fights, romantic declarations, and buddy humor. Yet Green puts such a silly comic spin on everything to show just how buffoonish these conventions can be. Take for example the film’s final shootout, where Dale and Saul are trapped in a drug lair with both Ted’s gang and the Asian drug lords. Dale and Saul attempt to beat people up and fire weapons, yet they do it so poorly and pathetically that it makes us realize just how crazy it is how in countless action pictures, Everyday Joe’s can suddenly turn into Rambo. Dale’s fistfight with Ted looks like two schoolgirls trying to smack each other while Saul can’t properly handle a gun to save his life. Quentin Tarantino tried a similar strategy with Kill Bill, highlighting the goofiness of his grind house action to let his audience in on the fun and silliness of it all. Yet while we felt Tarantino laughed with his material, we feel Green is laughing at his.

Pineapple Express isn’t exactly the comedy classic you’d expect it to be. I wish it was a lot funnier, and I wish it played around with its bigger ideas a little more. In terms of being a Judd Apatow project, it has all the usual laughs and ideals of male bonding we’ve come to expect and enjoy from his work. Of course, the material is elevated this time by Franco’s performance and Green’s surprising direction. It’s rare to see a film in this genre filmed with such graceful and dignified technical skill. This could very well be the best looking stoner comedy ever made.