Ten p.m. on a Glendale balcony, two floors above the theater that just screened the movie, in the apartment where it was written. Five of the cast and crew, one two-gram doink, and the first joint Mike Mitchell has smoked in twenty years. Awkwafina has already signed on for the sequel.
Los Angeles. Top floor of the Americana at the Brand Residences. 10:05 p.m. on a Saturday night.
After wrapping up a screening of The Napa Boys, I find myself outside sharing a balcony joint with the core cast of the new film, all while overlooking Glendale’s most famous Cheesecake Factory.
We’re up at director and co-writer Nick Corirossi’s apartment, in the residential tower that sits on top of the Americana at the Brand, an open-air mall in Glendale. The AMC is at most a two-minute walk door-to-door, straight down from where we’re standing. You know you’ve got a future cult classic on your hands when there’s an official “drunk screening” Q&A with the crew. Wading through groups of fans repping their own handmade costumes on the way out further solidifies this.
Now, is living at Americana at the Brand the film equivalent of the world’s most famous comedians living above the Comedy Store in the ’70s and ’80s? No, not really. But the fact that Corirossi co-wrote The Napa Boys on this very balcony alongside Armen Weitzman makes it a piece of cinema history. At least in my book.
Before we begin, let’s call it like it is: I’d put the odds at 50/50 that you’ll even like this movie. When it premiered at TIFF, there were some walkouts. The fact that you’re reading this in High Times bodes well, but unless you also sit smack-dab in the middle of the virtual Venn diagram covering alt-comedy lovers and stoners who still drink, you might have missed The Napa Boys theatrical run.
For the uninitiated:
- This is now the 4th Napa Boys movie. 1 through 3 don’t actually exist.
- Imagine Sideways but give it the American Pie straight-to-DVD cinematic universe treatment. Even the Blu-ray is an “Unrated & Uncorked” edition.
- Cameos include everyone from frequent David Lynch collaborator Ray Wise to Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes in full Jay & Silent Bob regalia. David Wain pops up, so does DJ Qualls, Natasha Leggero, Ivy Wolk and Euphoria‘s Chloe Cherry.
- They have their own cannabis collab: merlot-flavored rosin gummies from SuperChill.
As the two-gram doink slowly burns down to ash, I have my opportunity to dig into the production process with Nick and Armen, along with cast members Mike Mitchell (IFC’s The Birthday Boys, the Doughboys podcast) and Paul Rust, who steals the movie in his role as Squirm, but whom many know from his music or as the creator and lead of Netflix’s stellar series Love. I probably spend the most time with producer Mike Rosenstein, best known for his work with Ben Stiller and Eric Andre, and for producing Have a Good Trip, the psychedelics documentary that landed on streaming mid-pandemic. Personally, though, I’m geeking out over his show Another Period, which appears to be where many of these collaborators first met.
Sure, none of these guys are household names.
But in my house, where we just finished our annual rewatch of Another Period and Nick’s Funny or Die webshort “Don Cheadle is Captain Planet” from back in 2011 is still being constantly quoted, they’re comedy heroes.
Mike Mitchell called it best: this experience is kind of like Almost Famous for me. It’s a chance to feel like one of the guys, while also realizing that they’re a pack of lovable, pop-culture-obsessed weirdos just like, well, most readers of High Times.
A half-finished bottle of Espolón sits on the kitchen counter.
Shot over the course of nine days during the height of the LA wildfires, there is truly nothing else like this movie.
The plot is simple. The Napa Boys gang reunites to help their friend Mitch (Mitchell) best rival Squirm (Rust) in a local wine competition. They’re joined by new addition Puck (played by Sarah Ramos, a journalist and superfan who dreams of becoming a Napa Boy) and Stifler’s Brother (Jamar Neighbors) as they seek out the fabled Sommelier’s Amulet to help give Mitch’s wine the winning edge.
Absurdist, gross-out and often cringe-inducing “anti-joke” humor reigns supreme. It’s poking fun at an industry’s nonsense while simultaneously showing a deep reverence for what they love about it. Oddly wholesome, for a movie where a guy shits in a wine bucket for five minutes, uninterrupted.
Eric Andre nailed it in a blurb for the film’s press campaign, calling it “Sideways if they were drinking bong water instead of Merlot.” A24’s master of modern horror Ari Aster finds it “deeply hostile and weirdly sincere. A joyous comedy seething with hatred. I laughed at every part.” I wasn’t even sure that Ari Aster could laugh.
Per Corirossi: “A lot of people later admitted that they had no idea what the script was. They had no idea what the hell they were reading at all, and Jamar [Stifler’s Brother] had to get ChatGPT to summarize it over and over again to tell him the context of the script.” Rust is grinning next to him, nodding in affirmation.
If your favorite scene from Wet Hot American Summer is when the counselors decide to visit the local town, order the Blu-ray immediately, as this will be right up your alley. It’s Dazed & Confused, but if someone spiked their joints with PCP.
I tend to love stuff like this. But The Napa Boys cast and crew arguably do even more. And that comes through in the work.
Nick lights another Marlboro 27 and it’s time to get into it.
Is It Still a “Stoner Movie” if No One Smokes Weed?
Yes, and I’d challenge that some of the best stoner movies don’t show any consumption. Paul compares it to Wayne’s World in that regard, which is spot on.
The influence of cannabis is all over this thing. This movie may never have existed, certainly not in its current incarnation, without a steady stream of balcony blunts fueling Nick and Armen’s creativity on the exact spot where we’re now standing. I showed up to the interview with a case of joints and a few edibles, only for those gifts to be immediately reciprocated in kind. Two Napa Boys branded wine bottles, which have been converted into fully functional glass bongs, greeted me on the way in.
And thus we’re here. In honor of this interview, Mike Mitchell just took his first hit off a joint in “many years,” which was met with universal applause. Rosenstein said he hasn’t seen him touch the plant in about 20 years, and suddenly the pressure is on to make sure my questions for the guys aren’t a total bust.
From the second my recorder starts rolling, it’s clear that Nick, not unlike his role in the film, is willing to take the lead. Nick plays “Jack Jr.,” a walking charisma bomb with all the brashness and bravado of a young Vince Vaughn or Seann William Scott. Think Jax Taylor from Vanderpump Rules but somehow even douchier.
As a graduate of Florida State’s film school, his love for cinema shines through in most conversations you’ll have with him. I mean, the guy has a prop from Minority Report sitting in his living room, right next to the wall of film canisters and binders of alphabetized movies. Everywhere you look there is a movie, with loose DVDs scattered across surfaces like reflective drink coasters. The depth of his knowledge is truly staggering. At one point during the interview, we get off on a tangent about Jurassic Park.
“Harland Williams’s brother did the T. rex in Jurassic Park. That’s real. Steve ‘Spaz’ Williams. It was going to be Phil Tippett stop motion, but Steve Spaz Williams made it on his own in CG and showed Kathy Kennedy and Steven Spielberg without anyone’s permission, and they convinced them not to do stop motion. And later he was excommunicated by ILM for being such a ‘crazy guy’ or whatever.”
And here I thought that I was a walking IMDb trivia section. I was wrong.
Right off the bat, I question the guys on their inspirations, specifically other creators whose work helped shape TNB. Immediately, Nick chimes in with David Lean, the Marx Brothers and Monty Python.
“Look at George Lucas, who took a disrespected genre, which was the radio series of, like, Flash Gordon, he elevated them with David Lean and Kurosawa. So we took the disrespected genre of the sort of American Pie direct-to-video sequels, and imagined a world which we then injected the Terrence Malick and John Ford into that. So sometimes, scene by scene and line by line, you’re switching between them.”
Paul adds: “Yeah, I do think there is a new world where people are accusing us of being very, very extra raunchy, but there are other movies who have way more.”
Okay, we’ve got the classics covered. But I want to hear about the up-and-comers. Someone who has been really impressing them, who isn’t on anyone’s radar yet. Mike Rosenstein is quick to name-check Ivy Wolk, who we all agree has seemingly been popping up in everything these days, including The Napa Boys, along with The Shards, Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.
It turns out Nick was in another film with Ivy, The Code, which is from my fellow Ukrainian brother Eugene Kotlyarenko, the same guy behind Spree. Nick and Ivy are featured alongside Ruby McCollister, an emerging actress to keep an eye on, who is up next in Jordan Firstman’s Club Kid.
We’re roughly halfway through the joint.
I start to dig into the culture of cameos they were able to establish on set. Awkwafina has already signed on for their upcoming sequel, The Napa Girls. Truly half the fun is wondering who is about to pop up next. The big reveal is Bluntman and Chronic themselves, Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith, who appear with messages of hope and support for the gang while they’re mid-moose hunt (not a euphemism).
Unlike many of the other cameos, Mewes and Smith weren’t friends or past collaborators. “I think they felt in their souls that we did weird things,” Paul muses. “Then I think they read it and they felt it.”
Now, the Riki Lindhome, Natasha Leggero and David Wain cameos aren’t wholly out of left field. All starred in Rosenstein’s Another Period, which featured Armen in a leading role as lovable potato scrubber and manservant Garfield.
Armen plays more of the straight man role in TNB as Miles Jr., which helps to anchor the film’s absurdity. Throughout our conversation, he’s name-checking the ensemble spirit of Dazed & Confused and Can’t Hardly Wait as what they were aiming to capture. He’s a big Jerry Maguire guy, and we align on it being a movie you’re willing to cancel your plans for.
I can’t really tell if Armen is more responsible for the film’s underlying sense of heart and optimism or if that’s more Nick’s ilk.
Nah, I’m kidding, it’s Armen, 100%.
Addressing my point on cameos, he clarifies that this is a movie made by a group of friends who are all up-and-comers, or as he phrased it, “secret shiners,” and naturally his script was crafted to help them play to their strengths. “We were born out of a feeling of wanting to make these guys shine, and you know, we were trying to break through, to ‘break the wheel’ as Khaleesi once said. We wanted all our friends to shine.”
Mike shares that he’s already heard countless friends claiming how they now want to go make a movie “because these guys went out and did it.” There’s even been a sense of post-filming paralysis: “So how do you make something as funny as that?”
“Yes, you’ll see many Napa Boys posers coming out after this,” Nick deadpans.
Ray Wise, Wildfires and Poison Oak
We’re about down to the roach and I have a final question: regale me with one story from production that hasn’t ever been shared before.
They wouldn’t have been able to finish the shoot if not for the LA wildfires. Everyone came down with poison oak as they were filming in the woods exactly when the fires started up. Half of Armen’s face actually blew up à la Hitch or The Elephant Man, depending on who you ask, making filming impossible until he recovered.
“It actually worked out in a beautiful way. This is now part of the lore,” says Nick.
Speaking of The Elephant Man, we can’t forget the cameo of Ray Wise. Nick used to work with him on Funny or Die, which worked wonders to secure him at a reasonable rate. In a cruel twist of fate, his longtime collaborator and friend David Lynch passed away the day before he was expected on set.
Ray showed up like a true professional and knocked his scene out of the park. The guys made sure to put out donuts in honor of his late friend. And in something right out of a movie script, a large statue of Bob’s Big Boy, famously Lynch’s favorite haunt, was discovered in a corner of the ranch they filmed on that day.
I stub out the joint, thank the guys, and head home to watch Jerry Maguire.
Eat your heart out, Cameron Crowe.
The Napa Boys is now available on DVD, Blu-ray and home digital, and streaming free on Tubi, Kanopy and Prime Video. Take it from Nathan Fielder, whose contribution to the film’s press campaign was four words: “It’s even better the second time.”
