The Stranger

This has got to be one of the worst documentaries I have ever seen. “Celebrated documentarian” Ron Mann (celebrated where? The “Which One of You Dudes Thinks Psychedelic Mushrooms Are the Most Far Out, Maaaaan?” Awards) captures the scene at the Telluride Mushroom Festival, where mycologists, hippies, and weird mushroom enthusiasts of all stripes gather to trip, dance, drum, and be annoying. (Only one character—a Ted Nugent-lookin’ mushroom vigilante—managed to not drive me crazy.) Know Your Mushrooms is an infuriatingly vague survey of one of nature’s most fascinating, useful, and underexposed organisms—a ridiculous and useless ragout of mushroom puns, corny animation, inane trivia, and super-duper-high people describing their boring-ass shroom trips: “Now. Hey. That might be an interesting thing. Could you go through a wormhole with the mushroom and find yourself on a planet like earth? It sounds like fantasy, whatever, as I keep telling people, yesterday’s science fiction is today’s science, and things we didn’t think were possible are possible.” OH MY GOD, SHUT UP. By Lindy West