MOVIES BEST BET: GRASS

At first glance, the late U.S. President appears to be rolling a big fatty.
He is, however, inhaling odeur d'herbe from an alleged seized shipment of
marijuana. The photo-op finds its way into Grass, a hilarious documentary
about marijuana made by Canadian director Ron Mann.

The director likes to focus on subcultures, and his past films include
Imagine the Sound, about the free-jazz movement of the 1960s, Poetry in
Motion, a film profile of contemporary poets, and Comic Book Confidential,
which examined the history of the comic book.

Mann's new film is kind of a Reefer Madness for the new millennium.
Narrated by pro-pot advocate Woody Harrelson, the film assembles old
newsreels, stills and clips from Hollywood movies to make a case against
the criminalization of marijuana in the U.S. (though made by a Canadian,
Grass is obviously aimed at the American market). But rather than making a
shrill screed, Mann aims to entertain while getting his message across to
what will largely be an audience sympathetic toward decriminalizing the
wacky tobacky.

Mann doesn't play objective artist. In his director's statement on the
film, he says: "This film is different [from my previous documentaries]
because it is not about the personalities, it is a reaction against what is
wrong. With this film, I really felt that I needed to be responsible, to do
something about the wasteful and destructive drug laws that exist. One of
the reasons I made Grass is because people have this perception that the
laws are more tolerant than they are. In fact, things are getting worse."