Kid Cannabis

Kid Cannabis is a 2014 American biographical comedy-drama film. It is based on the true story of an Idaho teen dropout who builds a multimillion-dollar marijuana ring by trafficking drugs through the woods across the Canada–US border.

Kid Cannabis
DVD cover
Directed byJohn Stockwell
Produced byGordon Bijelonic
Corey Large
Michael Becker[1][2]
Screenplay byJohn Stockwell
StarringJonathan Daniel Brown
Kenny Wormald
Aaron Yoo
Ron Perlman
John C. McGinley[2]
Music byIrv Johnson
CinematographyPeter Holland
Edited byJon Berry
James Renfroe
Production
company
CRUSH FILMS
Wingman Productions
Imprint Entertainment
ARM Entertainment
Distributed byWell Go USA Entertainment
Release date
  • March 16, 2014 (2014-03-16) (Miami International Film Festival)
Running time
109 min
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$5,565 (One Theater)[3]

Plot

The plot is based on a true story and follows Nate (Jonathan Daniel Brown), who lives with his younger brother and their single mom who works multiple jobs to support them. An eighteen-year-old high school dropout, Nate smokes copious amounts of marijuana with his best friend Topher (Kenny Wormald), a 27-year-old who had moved from Boston. In order to attain status, they try their hand at smuggling weed across the Canada–US border. They cross the border to search for a supplier, leading them to a man who sells them $1,800 in marijuana. However, they discover later that the marijuana they purchased was of lower quality than they wanted, but stick with it out of convenience. The product proves successful, resulting in them going back across the border and meeting a person named Nicole (Merritt Patterson), who offers to sell them 300 pounds of marijuana from her father. They go on to train their friends to do this work, and after multiple successful runs, they make lavish purchases and throw parties with women. Following a violent encounter with another drug smuggler, the friends argue with Nate over payment, which Nate agrees to. At a party, Nate has an encounter with this smuggler, who gets into a gunfight with him and flees. The smuggler hires two career criminal brothers to rob Nate and Topher of their money and drugs and later to murder them. After a verbal altercation, the brothers strangled and stabbed the smuggler in the woods. Topher begins working in secret with others on drug runs, leading to the crew being robbed. This leads to the police arresting the crew, with Nate fleeing to Canada to avoid a life sentence. He returns after his mother is threatened with money laundering charges. At the end of the film, their whereabouts and status at the point of release are detailed.

Cast

Production
Producer Gordon Bijelonic, actor Kenny Wormald and director John Stockwell at the 2014 Miami International Film Festival presentation of Kid Cannabis

The film was inspired by an article on the real Nate Norman written by Mark Binelli for Rolling Stone magazine, which was published in 2005.[4] The story is based on the life of Nate Norman, an overweight high-school dropout and pizza delivery man in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, who built a multimillion-dollar business smuggling marijuana from Canada before eventually getting caught and sentenced to prison for 12 years. He was released early and is currently living in Coeur d’Alene. It is rumored he stashed nearly 100,000 dollars and 2 bag of chips before being arrested.[2][5]

Some scenes were shot in a real-life marijuana-growing facility in Canada, to which the crew was driven in a van with blacked-out windows.[5]

Music video

On October 5, 2014 rapper Andrew Canton released a music video of the movie on his YouTube page.

Reception

The film holds a 71% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 7 reviews.[6] It also has a rating of 54 on Metacritic based on six reviews, indicating "average or mixed reviews."[7] The Los Angeles Times noted that despite the portrayal, protagonist Nate is not treated sympathetically by the creators of the film. They also noted that Ron Perlman's performance was excellent.[8] Slant Magazine praised director Stockwell for capturing the "half-baked hubris that often accompanies adolescence."[9] The New York Times thought that the younger cast and Ron Perlman had a good performance, but didn't like the voice-over due to it feeling "forced and unfunny".[10] The Hollywood Reporter enjoyed the performances, but didn't think it handled the genre shift very well.[11]

Box Office Mojo lists total domestic theater sales, in one theater as $5,565.[12]

References
  1. Michael D. Reid, Kid Cannabis producer high on shooting in Victoria, Times Colonist, (June 5, 2014).
  2. Frank Scheck (April 6, 2014). "Kid Cannabis: Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved January 18, 2018.
  3. "Kid Cannabis". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved January 18, 2018.
  4. Mark Binelli (October 20, 2005). "Kid Cannabis: The Wild Rise and Violent Fall of a Teenage Weed Kingpin". Rolling Stone. Retrieved January 18, 2018.
  5. Larry Getlen (April 17, 2014). "How nerdy teen became a $38M pot kingpin". New York Post. Retrieved January 18, 2018.
  6. "Kid Cannabis". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved January 18, 2018.
  7. "Kid Cannabis". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved January 18, 2018.
  8. Gary Goldstein (2014-04-17). "Review: 'Kid Cannabis' shows high and low life of a pot dealer". Retrieved 2019-08-30.
  9. Jordan Osterer (2014-04-13). "Review: Kid Cannabis". Slant Magazine. Retrieved 2019-08-30.
  10. Neil Genzlinger (2014-04-17). "Don't Just Pass the Joint, Sell It". The New York Times. Retrieved 2019-08-30.
  11. Frank Scheck (2014-04-16). "Kid Cannabis: Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2019-08-30.
  12. "Kid Cannabis". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved January 18, 2018.
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