Friends in weed are friends indeed...

Indeed, it may be advisable to light one up before watching Doobious Sources, a low-budget indie stoner comedy getting set for a week's run at Hollywood's Arena Cinelounge starting January 20th presented by Doobious Sources LLC and Gravitas Ventures. 

It's likely not a huge surprise that the film has experienced some degree on fledgling stoner film fest circuit, I'm kind of making that up, including picking up the Golden Leaf at the Maine Cannabis Film Festival along with screenings at the Cannabis Film Festival and as the Denver Film Society's 4-20 Special Selection. 

The film stars Jeff Lorch and Jason Weissbrod as renegade journalists for an investigative news show they call "Instant Karma." Doobious Sources is on some level a rather timely film as it rather satirizes the whole fake news scene in a format that the team behind the film considers half art film and half stoner comedy. 

Portraying two journalists who are so perpetually stoned that their subsequent paranoia causes them to constantly film each other, Lorch and Weissbrod give cyclical performances that are initially rather amusing but become rather tiresome by the time the 102-minute film mercifully winds itself down. Having seen both actors in other projects, they're unquestionably talented but Doobious Sources misfires early on and never finds its spark again. Joe Cortese, as a victim of the tainted journalism out for revenge, fares best here but for most of the film it seems like everyone's trying hard, too hard, to make something special happen and the occasionally histrionic line delivery only serves to lessen the likelihood of laughs along the way. 

For the record, I never laughed. In their defense, I also wasn't stoned while watching the film. 

Production values for Doobious Sources are fine for the most part with occasionally shaky lensing being the most obvious indicator of the film's low-budget roots. 

Doobious Sources is the kind of low-budget flick that you might find yourself watching on late night cable, the kind of film you can watch while folding laundry or stealing a late night quickie before the kids wake up. Unquestionably pro-legalization, Doobious Sources has a much better chance of finding an audience once it hits VOD than finding life in theatrical release.

© Written by Richard Propes
The Independent Critic