Rating: 14A

It’s the end of the school year, and smarmy Principal Gordon (Michael Chiklis) has instituted a zero-tolerance crusade against his nemesis, that reviled weed, marijuana. A mandatory drug test is to be administered to all students, failure of which will result in immediate expulsion. Normally, this would be of no consequence to straight-arrow valedictorian Henry Burke, except he just tried ganja for the very first time. With his college scholarship hanging in the balance, Burke begrudgingly teams up with charismatic pothead Travis Breaux to do the only thing they can think of to neutralize this threat—get the entire student body stoned.

In his debut feature, director and co-writer John Stalberg Jr. percolates his deliriously manic narrative with sparkling energy and deviant characters, joyously ramming his protagonists deeper into frenzied chaos. HIGH SCHOOL paints its slacker wit with lush, broad strokes, creating the conclusive stoner fantasia in a school run hilariously amok.

BL