20th Anniversary TLDR: Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004)
No matter what, we are not ending this night without White Castle in our stomachs.
Plot: Nerdy accountant Harold and his irrepressible friend, Kumar, get stoned watching television and find themselves utterly bewitched by a commercial for White Castle. Convinced there must be one nearby, the two set out on a late-night odyssey that takes them deep into New Jersey. Somehow, the boys manage to run afoul of rednecks, cops and even a car-stealing Neil Patrick Harris before getting anywhere near their beloved sliders.
Direction: Daniel Leiner's Wikipedia page says that he directed “stoner comedies”, like this film and Dude, Where's My Car? (there's even a moment where they say that famous question in this movie) and there's no other way to put it: he made stoner comedies. Plain and simple. His final film before his 2018 passing was Balls Out: Gary the Tennis Coach, which does not look good. In terms of Harold & Kumar, I am legitimately unsure if this is an ahead-of-its-time masterpiece or just a relic of a bygone time. It screams the attitudes and political appropriateness of 2004. I just don't know if it's aware of that or not. Either way, it's fun.
Screenplay: Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg wrote a script that's full of pot jokes, race jokes, words we don't say anymore, and just enough self-awareness to make me wonder if the whole thing is self-aware. Luckily for them, I'm a grown man who still finds poop jokes funny and they are in no short supply here.
Performances: John Cho (Searching) and Kal Penn (Former Associate Director in the White House Office of Public Engagement) play really well off each other. They have great chemistry and make a lot of the stuff that doesn't work play well enough for them. The world around them is populated with enough future stars and comedian journeymen that you can play Where's Waldo? with the supporting cast: Neil Patrick Harris, Ryan Reynolds, David Krumholtz, Eddie Kay Thomas, Malin Akerman, Gary Anthony Williams, and Fred Willard.
Best moment: When they get the White Castle. It's so satisfying. And makes you want White Castle really bad.
Fun fact: The closest White Castle to my house is 109.1 miles away, which is criminally far away and a blow to find out after watching this movie. So I went to the grocery store and bought the crappy microwave version instead.
Imaginary accolade: Runner-Up, Best Use of "Hold On" by Wilson Phillips in Film History (it lost to Bridesmaids)
Everything is too long! Is it too long? 88 minutes! Money!
Rating: It convinced me to check out the other two movies, but your mileage may vary.
Credit: Plot synopsis from Letterboxd via TMDb.