In 1915, Franz Kafka first wrote “Before the Law,” a short, symbolic story about a tormented man forever prevented from passing a threshold, even though it was made solely for him. In 1971, Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong performed “Dave,” a short, symbolic recording about a tormented man forever prevented from passing a threshold, because the guy on the other side is too friggin’ stoned to realize what the hell is going on. “Dave’s not here!” is as uneasy of a rebuke as anything found in the tortured Czech author’s oeuvre—and a hell of a lot funnier.
Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong were unlikely superstars in the 1970s and ’80s—the “first rock ‘n’ roll comedians”—recording albums, selling out huge venues and releasing films that played heavily into drug culture schtick. Their 1978 masterpiece, Cheech & Chong’s Up in Smoke, is a cannabis-hazed update on vaudeville-style stupidity. It’s a Bob Hope and Bing Crosby movie with bloodshot eyes, and represents a lost period when the counterculture had both a lawless edge and gluttonous sense of humor. It might be impossible for young people today to understand that there was an element of danger to these two dopey dorks doing bits about being so high they didn’t notice their car was already parked.
Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie (the title is a spin on their second feature, Cheech & Chong’s Next Movie) is yet another victory lap documentary about artists in their twilight years—essentially a Wikipedia article with a lot of filigree. But because the subjects are so interesting and the archival material is such a treasure, it’s hard to get too upset with the light touch. (The door remains open for one of Cheech and/or Chong’s kids, who seemed pretty out of the picture during the duo’s heyday, to make an insightful My Architect-style doc at a later date.)
Directed by David L. Bushell (a producer of some essential indies from the 1990s like Sling Blade and Niagara, Niagara) Last Movie, in limited release April 20 and going wide April 25, hits all the usual tropes for a project like this. The two fellas talk about their childhoods and some cheapo animation fills in when there isn’t any footage to insert. But things get creative with a makeshift spine to the recollections: Cheech and Chong, now 78 and 86 (though a little younger when they shot this), on a long drive in the desert, looking for “signs,” man. There are brief appearances from ex-wives and former producers (shoutout to Lou Adler!), all of whom are on good enough terms with the fellas now to appear in this film.
Both men come from unique backgrounds. Richard “Cheech” Marin was one of the only Mexican-American kids in the mostly Black neighborhood of Watts, the son of, as he puts it, an angry cop. He later moved to the suburbs and attended Catholic school, and considered becoming a priest until he started hanging out with “white girls named Debbie.” Tommy Chong grew up outside of Calgary, Canada, with a Chinese father and white mother. He learned guitar and wrote some songs, and joined a fairly successful R&B group on Motown Records. He was quick to get married and have kids.
Fate brought the two men together under the umbrella of improv comedy. Though neither had acting backgrounds, both were preternatural at doing bits. Cheech was always the more versatile—a whiz with voices (no, he doesn’t really talk like that low-riding vato from the movies) and gifted at making zany faces. Chong basically does that one thing he does—the whacked-out stoner—but he does it better than anyone who has ever lived. (And, yeah, he kinda does sound like that.)
After several long, hard years working clubs they became an overnight success with the release of their first album. Their act was somewhere between skits and stand up, but aimed at a hip crowd. Their shorter cuts (like “Dave”) were perfect for underground radio. After five successful albums they made their first of six movies. (Seven if you count their ahead-of-its-time package of music videos, Get Out of My Room.)
Here’s the thing about their movies: other than the first one, Up in Smoke, they are all kinda bad, but each are all singularly fascinating. Next Movie (1980) features the celebrated welfare office sequence, showcasing Marx Brothers-level chaos through a grimy lens of urban decay. You can watch it 20 times and notice something new on each pass.
Last Movie does a good job at showing off choice bits from their stage act and their films, while also glossing over some of the stuff that might raise eyebrows today. Their glam-rock parody song “Earache My Eye” (later covered by Soundgarden!) is probably a little homophobic, the makeup Tommy Chong wore to play an Arab sheik in Things Are Tough All Over would make Bradley Cooper’s Lenny Bernstein wince, and let’s not even talk about Cheech’s Jamaican character from Still Smokin’. Things were different then and the movie very much wants to present them as kind old dudes today, so why risk showing any of that when there’s plenty of other footage?
The documentary does make clear that the two still disagree on why they broke up when they did, and there is obviously a smidge of bad blood remaining, even if it’s mostly water under the bridge now. The film is oddly (and unexpectedly) touching at its end, as the two bicker and then hug it out.
Strangely, however, the movie completely ignores that the two have licensed their names and images for cannabis products for years. (I don’t know about you, but I see ads for this every day on my social media feeds.) Hard to know if that’s intentional, or they just forgot, man.
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