December 20–27, 2001

movie shorts

How High

The blissful friendship of Method Man and Redman is the stuff of legend. Who can forget their affable puffing and clowning in the Hard Knock Life tour documentary, Backstage, in which Redman invites an interviewer to bring the mike up close, to listen to his "nuts talk"? Now, like their most obvious comic predecessors Cheech and Chong, Meth and Redman have found a feature-length vehicle (directed by Jesse Dylan, son of Bob), to showcase their favorite pursuits, namely cutting up, lighting up and enjoying each other’s company immensely. In the supremely ridiculous How High, they do it at Harvard, aided by a strain of super-weed that makes them smart. They shake up the status quo, including Hector Elizondo as the crew coach, Obba Babatundé as a dean and Spalding Gray as an undone professor. Meth is, as always, exceedingly charismatic, and his partner an able comic foil. Everyone else is along for the ride.

—Cindy Fuchs

(AMC Andorra; AMC Orleans; UA Cheltenham; UA Riverview; UA 69th St.)