Opening with the smoke of a joint slowly curling across the screen, “Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie” premiered at SXSW on Tuesday as a capsule of everything fans have loved about the comedy duo for decades. To add to the entertainment of seeing Cheech and Chong skits on the big-screen, the documentary included never-before-shared engaging details about their personal lives and the two’s roots.
David Bushell directed the two hour documentary and produced it with Robbi Chong, Tommy Chong’s daughter. They told the story of Cheech and Chong through old news interviews, movie scenes, live performances, animations, photographs and individual new commentary from Richard “Cheech” Marin and Thomas Chong. Fitting to their personalities, the film sprinkled skits and jokes throughout to blur the lines between a comedy film and documentary.
The film began by detailing the two’s separate childhoods and early adulthood experiences that prefaced their meeting in 1968. Though they came from different backgrounds, both Chong and Marin developed an appreciation for entertainment early on with Chong performing in bands and Marin enjoying music and using his humor to manage difficult school environments as a kid. Adding to their childhoods, Marin and Chong goofily recounted their separate introductions to pot as young adults — a trademark theme for their characters.
Eventually, Marin and Chong’s paths led them to meet in Vancouver, Canada. Chong owned a bar in Vancouver that put on a bizarre show that included a musician, a mime, strippers dancing and improv comedy on one stage. The film’s animations illustrate the absurdness of the act in the absence of photographs and footage. When Chong hired Cheech to write scenes for the act, they laid the foundation of mixing humor related to sex and substance the two were eventually known and loved for.
Soon, the two moved to Los Angeles, California together to take on stand-up comedy and went by “Cheech and Chong” from then on. After fighting to work and struggling to get by and support their families, producer Lou Adler picked up the pair and helped them successfully become the first rock & roll comedians. In this second half of the story, recent Marin and Chong commentary explains how from their success and moving into the film industry, the two went down separate career paths because of rising tensions between them in the 1980s. Old interview’s of the two explaining their dynamic and funny scenes from their movies together such as the opening scene to “Up in Smoke” set to the song “Low Rider” by War balance with Marin and Chong’s commentary on their falling-out..
A side-skit of Marin and Chong present-day driving down a desert highway together disagreeing over who was in the wrong in their professional falling-out climaxes near the documentary’s end. Though they don’t come to a concrete agreement on what happened that led to their professional separation, they ultimately agree to not focus on the unimportant issue, and that their friendship prevails. The film closes with them dramatically walking together into a shack that holds a giant, blazing joint on its roof — a place that looks like the perfect hangout for Cheech and Chong. Ending in such a goofy but heartwarming way provided perhaps the perfect ending to the two’s last production together.
5 out of 5, man.
