Introducing Endless Mode: A New Games & Anime Site from Paste
Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie is like being in the middle of a dream blunt rotation. Seated between Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong as they take a final trip to the desert in search of a missing joint, the viewer rides through the haze for an endearing documentary that might be their last movie and is certainly among their best. With a fine blend of archival footage, stylized animation, and a genuine depiction of their 50-year working relationship, Last Movie proves these immortal potheads still hit.
Directed by David L. Bushell, who previously helmed the short Jim Carrey doc I Needed Color, Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie structures itself like a classic Cheech & Chong adventure, with Cheech at the wheel and Chong searching for a lost joint while riding shotgun. To hear them tell it, their partnership was written in the stars, and Last Movie unlocks moments of serendipity through its use of old clips and the surprise hitchhikers that join their journey. There’s an element of surprise that jolts the film in these early passages, whether it be a very welcome appearance from an ex-wife or a high-guy call from the heavens. One such moment arrives in Canada—years before they met—when Cheech, dodging the draft and holed up with a broken leg, becomes obsessed with a Supremes song written by Chong.
By cutting from the front seat to early performance clips and animations inspired by the underground comix of R. Crumb and Kim Deitch, Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie evokes the Nixon era tastefully and rarely resorts to the same old signifiers or needledrops. Instead, the movie’s rhythms follow Cheech & Chong’s rhythm. What starts as a leisurely drive down memory lane shifts gears as their lives and careers become more complicated.
As it speeds into the second half, the pair’s unresolved conflicts bubble, and the movie careens into well-charted territory, hitting cruise control when Lou Adler, the Grammy-winning record producer known for Carole King’s Tapestry, hops in the back. An essential part of their history, Adler gave the comedians their first recording contract and the space to develop their act. Under Adler, the duo went from doing improv on Chong’s strip club stage to opening for the Rolling Stones and earning four gold records in four years. But when Adler stepped in to direct their first feature, Up In Smoke, their careers detoured into familiar territory, with contract disputes, credit conflicts, and diverging interests as the only sights worth seeing.
Cheech & Chong were never comedians in the traditional sense, and were often billed as “hard rock comedy.” Cheech argues that they’re more of a band than a comedy team. Appropriately, Bushell applies the structure of a rock doc to give shape to their journey, and picks up that genre’s cliches too. Taking the Behind The Music route, Last Movie focuses heavily on the hits while ignoring the misses, hitting the gas until Up In Smoke before decelerating in its coverage of the 1980s. Understandably, there is more enthusiasm to discuss recording “Basketball Jones” with George Harrison than the public dismissal of their ambitious Alexandre Dumas adaptation, The Corsican Brothers.
The mixed feelings lingering around their later projects reflect the duo’s fracturing relationship, and that atmosphere is aided by archival interviews which alternatively catch them at their cockiest, humblest, and most intellectually coherent. Last Movie strikes a balance between artists who care deeply about their craft and the critical drubbing of their work, chasing a clip of Cheech comparing a shot in Nice Dreams to Hieronymus Bosch with a brutal pan from Roger Ebert. Those wounds left scars, and, as the drive continues, they reveal themselves behind bickering and side-eyes.
The tension between Cheech & Chong is a tale as old as time. But their overwhelming respect and love for each other make Last Movie an amiable tour through an unlikely and historic career, arriving at an even more unlikely send-off. Through its eclectic style, Last Movie constructs a well-rounded portrait of two cultural icons whose legacy has been flattened by years of parody and imitation, building an argument for Cheech & Chong as iconoclasts whose mark on culture remains intact. That the movie doesn’t attempt to reconcile their issues is to its credit. There’s not much catharsis to be found in them rehashing the past. It’s better for Cheech & Chong to keep rolling.
Director: David L. Bushell
Release Date: April 20, 2025
