After Peter Hadley (Jeremy Strong) fails his final class in medical school putting an important residency in jeopardy, he lets the chips fall where they may and spends a wild and crazy evening with free-spirited jazz singer Bogart (Fairuza Balk). Waking up after this night of strange reverie, he finds himself stranded in the middle of the Redwood Forest deposited in the multi-generational family home of marijuana farmers Jack (Brad Dourif) and Rosie (Frances Conroy) completely unsure of how he got there.

Jeremy Strong and Fairuza Balk in Magnolia Pictures' Humboldt County

At first, Peter rejects the pot-smoking patriarch and his oddly easy-going clan. But after awhile (and more than a few missed bus rides back to town) he comes to realize there is more to life than living his father Professor Hadley’s (Peter Bogdanovich) dreams. Slowly he’s drawn into the Humboldt County lifestyle, and though the haze of smoke is a bit overpowering the man’s vision has never been better. He’s got to change the direction of his life; he’s just not sure which way he wants to go.

For about ten minutes or so, I absolutely loathed the new independent drama Humboldt County. This movie annoyed the ever-loving crap out of me, Peter such an odiously morose train wreck of a human being the thought of spending a full 90-plus minutes with the guy nearly turned my stomach. Truth be told, I did not want to be in the theater anymore, and if I would have thought no one would have noticed it is very likely I would have gotten up and left.

But there was something about the movie that kept me watching, an almost indescribable vibe hinting that things were not all that they appeared to be. Before I knew it, just about the time Peter missed his first bus back to UCLA and civilization, I suddenly realized I was completely infatuated with what was going on. More, I don’t think I would have left the theater even under the cacophonous sirens of an air raid, the movie sneaking under my skin to the point I couldn't imagine being anywhere else.

Credit and respect must be paid to freshman co-writers and co-directors Darren Grodsky and Danny Jacobs. Everything they do has meaning and there is reason behind their almost insufferable early-act madness. These two are completely unafraid to put the audience on immediate notice that work is going to be required of them, their movie not the usual homogenized hokum that spells everything out and leaves nothing to the imagination.

No, Humboldt County is the exact opposite of this. In some ways, it plays much like a combination of Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show and Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven, and while I would never remotely claim this one is the monumental classic those two are the fact I can even mention it in the same breath should hopefully speak volumes. These characters aren’t types, they’re fully formed human beings. As such, they don’t reveal themselves in cliché sound bites, instead doling out information in stated comments here and there and physical ticks and mannerisms from one moment to the next.

I’d forgotten just how brilliant an actor Dourif can be when actually given the opportunity. While everyone has their moment to shine, it is the one-time One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Oscar-nominee who I just can’t get out of my head. He has scenes that truly blew me away, one particular third act monologue recollected to Peter so stirring it brought me to deliciously rapturous heartfelt tears. 

I wish a central ATF raid upon one character’s marijuana field didn’t end up feeling so frantically staged and unfocused, and as magnificent as the film builds I can’t help but think the filmmakers could have achieved the same effect without making the early moments so thoroughly detestable. Overall, though, I think Humboldt County is one movie that gets a viewer high for all the right reasons, and as cinematic drugs are concerned this is one hit worth say yes to.

Film Rating: êêê  (out of 4)

Additional Links:

-  Humboldt County Theatrical Trailer