A SHROOM OF ONE’S OWN
The most relatable magic mushroom sequence in all of cinema may also be the most boring, and certainly the least psychedelic. In Judd Apatow’s Knocked Up, Seth Rogen’s bedraggled father-to-be and his buddy, played by Paul Rudd, escape to Las Vegas for a by-the-numbers guys’ weekend, which includes the ritual gobbling of a few caps of psilocybin. Cue the usual, sub-Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas rendering of the psychedelic experience, including Rogen freaking out at the intensity and surrealism of a Cirque du Soleil performance.
The perceptive bit comes a little later, when the two dudes, tripping in their hotel, assemble a dais of their room’s different chairs. “The short one’s gawking at me,” Rogen blathers, still gripped by his bad trip. “And the short one’s being very droll. or the zonked out, weed-and-pills riffing of the recent . The dialogue feels faithful to the wooly, half-formed revelations of a moderate-dose psychedelic experience. Or rather, a certain strain of psychedelic experience.