Humboldt County – SXSW Premiere

To be honest, up until an hour before I saw this movie, I had assumed we were going to see a documentary about pot growers – and was not looking forward to it.

But that is not what this movie was at all. It was actually a movie with real, honest to goodness actors, and a pretty compelling story to go with it.

After seeing his potential medical future go down the drain, Peter involves himself with a woman and takes a trip to her home with her, where she quickly abandons him. And he must find his way back home by himself – but does he even want to go back?

The meat of the movie strikes me as being about running away. Running away from society, your responsibilities, even your parents. Running away so much some times that you are inevitably running back towards what your parents were themselves running from.

For most people they will see the movie poster or see some promotional material and think oh, that’s just a drug movie. But it’s not. It’s much more.

This is very much a character driven movie, that some people don’t have the patience to sit through anymore. But it’s nice to see a film were you can actually see a character grow and change throughout a movie. Where they can actually learn something about themselves and you can see it unfold with them and for them.

It’s sad that studios don’t see an audience for these kinds of movies in the theaters. In cases like this, they are usually worth seeing.