If Spike Jonze and Werner Herzog got together and remade Robert Altman’s 1966 short Pot au Feu (a film about the joys of smoking weed), then the result would be pretty close to Alexander Vorobyev’s Purple Haze.
Christon Andell is Niles, a nervous guy. Why nervous? He needs a job, and he is sitting across from the one person willing to hire him as a security guard in a greenhouse that specializes in endangered plant species and experimental, chemically enhanced, and altered shrubbery.
“…endangered plant species and experimental, chemically enhanced and altered shrubbery.”
Everything in the greenhouse is visible on a closed network of security monitors, yet Niles must leave his post every hour on the hour to physically check on the nursery. After stating fervently that they can depend on him to fulfill that protection of the greenhouse that is his charge, Niles gets the gig. And all is well, until the hour arrives, and one must venture into the garden.
This is where the road ends and the mind-altering state sets in. Niles decides to not only go for a wander in the greenhouse but also risks partaking in some of its peculiarities, like the blue strawberries. Nile’s consciousness erupts into the stratosphere. He is higher than a kite, tripping as he sees a janitor (Matthew James Fitzgerald) that may or may not be there, and Sonia (Nea Somogyi), the weed tree woman, who may or may not be taking to him as he snaps off a bud, readying for the blaze.
Purple Haze is a trip; one I’d happily take as long as it’s being passed around. I’ve skipped my favorite bits because, like experiencing any good psychedelic, you have to be game enough to swallow it before you’ll find out how deep the rabbit hole goes.
"…like experiencing any good psychedelic..."
