Bongwater (1998)
David is an artist and a pothead. He's fallen in love with the beautiful and sexy Serena, and things are going simply splendidly until poor David's house burns down. Serena doesn't need the bad vibes, so she splits the scene and runs off to New York with rocker and junkie Tommy. Lonely David finally turns to the sweet, sweet comfort of marijuana and his strange menagerie of friends to forget about his lost home and love
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Don't listen to the negative reviews
This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
The stoner theme is not all that Bongwater is about, it's a piece of unusual comedy and romance, with a quirky attitude. Each of the characters as well had a certain quirky quality as part of that attitude.David-Serena is definitely not your typical love story, but it worked as an adorable touch. The movie might not be your cup of tea, if you consider those different elements but the humor was there, the performances were solid and the romance was believable.After all, the movie still had a sense of reality to it. It gives a friendly and likable vibe, but perhaps it's something the public is not used to which explains the harsh numbers.7/10
Bongwater, although its title misleads many people to think of it as a stoner film, is a solid drama/comedy title in the vein of films like Drugstore Cowboy, an 80's film featuring Matt Dillon, or Trainspotting, except with less drug use and more sexual promiscuity - Bongwater, in short, is not a drug-centric movie. However, it is interesting because of its cast. Its obviously bare-bones script requires careful acting from its stars to give it a little extra life. Overall, maybe not enough of that extra energy is awarded to the by-the-rules directing style, but ultimately, what comes out is a solid, engaging flick, worth watching all the way through.
If this is the author's and director's idea of a slice of life, they are clinically manic depressives. A sad, moody film at best, with ubiquitously aimless and unhappy characters who negatively interact with disastrous results. This film is billed as a comedy. What was so funny about losing your home to an allegedly premeditated arson or the drug induced, forcible rape of one of the main characters. Is this art imitating life? Jack Black was mildly amusing as the mountain man, weed farmer. However, even this segment of the film was rife with pathos. What was the point of living in the middle of nowhere with an entourage. If Black's character was so paranoid, why was he doing acid with a group of people right out of Woodstock? Is there no end to disconnected relationships, a plot less script, and scene transitions lacking any cohesiveness or logical chronology.
It starts out looking like it may be going somewhere, then quickly leads the main characters into a three-ring circus of remarkable stupidity which permanently destroys any likability of the characters. I'm a huge collector of stoner movies, but this is something I would not consider a valid addition. Bong Water is trash from the very deepest regions of the dumpster, and I wouldn't be caught dead with this on my shelf. I'm actually convinced this movie was created by a Partnership for A Drug Free America. If you're a Jack Black fan then I would say that you may think 5 minutes of the movies is OK because Jack Black continues his legacy of singing songs for retards. I really can't say enough bad things about this movie.