Around the Fire

source: Around the Fire

source: Around the Fire

The film "Around the fire" is a fairly plausible attempt at showing drug culture and how it can negatively affect a person's life. The true thing that this film lacked was script. Not an altogether bad script, but one that could have used more work. What, tradgically, does not get recognition is the direction of John Jacobsen. Jacobsen, who was working with two fairly unknown actors of the time, Devon Sawa and Tara Reid (who had some success earlier)used his skills as a director to truly pull the best performances from these young actors. Also Jacobsens direction in this film really parallels Mamet, in a way. He is a no-nonsense director who has not received the attention he truly deserves.

"Around the Fire", a feauture length Anti-Drug commercial (watch any of them on TV as a hint to the globs of cheesiness in this film), is about an average white-boy from a rich family who gets sucked into the alluring world of psychedelic drugs, music, and the lot scene, ending up in rehab (wow, now that is an original concept, NOT). If this film were made in the style of a docudrama and the re-creation of the lot scene had been somewhat realistic, and by someone who, heaven forbid, has ever toured or even seen the Grateful Dead before, it could have been quite good. But instead, we get a low budget, poorly directed, horribly acted, and absolutely phony adaptation of a lot scene, which is laughable to anyone who has ever been to a show before. The film makers try to be cool and realistic by offering as many cliches about the lot scene as possible, from ganja gooballs to tye dye vendors, but it doesn't work. The problem is the actors are obvious phonies, wearing brand new tye dyes and looking way too clean. If these phonies were on a dead lot they would be instantly considered tourists, if not cops by the tour-heads. No deadheads on tour even remotely resembled the "hippies" in this film. If you don't believe me then go rent "Tye-Dyed", which is an actual documentary of life on the road with the Dead, and see for yourself. Also, the films set that is supposed to resemble a deadlot is pathetically unrealistic and cheesy. I saw this film a month ago on late night and figured I would give it a chance, but was highly disappointed. For people that have never experienced the lot-scene of the Grateful Dead, or on a lesser note, Phish, go and rent "Tye-Dyed", at least it does some justice and you see real dead heads on a real lot. For those who are experienced, watch "Around the Fire" just so you can get a good laugh out of your system. Otherwise, stay far and away, because this film is an absolute stinker.

After reading the comments about this movie being about how drugs are bad and how it's an anti drug movie...I feel that the commentators are incorrect. This is NOT an anti drug movie. This was a movie about UNDERSTANDING self with or without the use of drugs. In one scene the counselor makes a comment how people who use drugs can have no problems, some have minor problems and some all they do is have problems. So. it's not like there is a lecture on "DON'T USE DRUGS". With a budget of just over 1 million dollars, this was an excellent example of both points of view. And no, the main character was not in rehab cause he was addicted, it was because he was busted by cops. It's nice to see a movie about LSD/ACID and not have the characters act like total idiots or be outrageous losers. Not all ravers/hippies are losers and yes...some do actually hold jobs and get great grades in school...I was one of them. The only problem I had with this film was that either the director had virtually no idea what acid/lsd does or weed, because the visions for lsd were not pshycadelic enough and the effects didn't match up anywhere what a real acid trip would be like. A typical acid trip would change the person to be almost unstable for anyway between 8 to 16 hours. Whereas the characters in this film were basically only stoned for a mere matter of minutes, then were straight faced again. Also the weed was either total garbage or the characters weren't inhaling. Pot smokers...and you know who you are...will realize that when you smoke weed, you are very outgoing and talkative and have a more poignant view on life. The stuff they smoked had to be cut with peppermint tea or lawn clippings, because their vocabulary was kinda dull and their conversations didn't lead to any enlightenment. This film will not win any Oscars or other trophies, even though it beats out some that are nominated, but it is a good product which is not too far fetched. Anti-drug??? No...not at all. Also Stephen Tobolowsky is awesome, as always...would've loved to see more. Can this guy do no wrong? A few more minutes with the Doc character would have made this even better...maybe there was and is still in the can or the cutting room floor...anyways, Stephen Tobolowsky has a bit part, but he does his role great. The hippie cop was so obvious...from first second, I knew he was POPO. A few more minutes of film would have been greatly appreciated and the flashbacks could have been cleaned up a bit...I found them too overcast and visually harsh. Performances were good, soundtrack was awesome. Lighting (flashbacks aside) was very well done. Overall, I was please that I purchased this movie and with the small budget that this movie had, it accomplished much more than films with an 80 million dollar budget (League of Extraordinary Garbage...err I mean Gentlemen), Terminator 3 - Rise of the Machines, Batman/action hereos, Matrix 1,2 and 3 and so many more big Hollywood Tom Cruise/Vin Diesel/Arnold/Halle Berry/Harrison Ford flicks. Imagione...with the fraction of a paycheck that the big stars get, this movie company and many other independents can make better stories and be more interesting than the big so called blockbusters. This film was o.k. and hell, with only minor oversights...there is no loss. I'm glad to see that the characters didn't get all stupid or addicted or lose their entire life because they smoked a joint and dropped cid.

Wow man! This is a great movie. Tie-dyes, drugs, free love, and great music..... what more could you ask for??? This movie is an accurate representation of the "struggle" young people could have with the act of balancing drugs and school. A small, but notable aspect of this movie is the way it depicts being high. So accurate:) It doesn't over-do it like most movies. Also, it reminds me of summers that I have with friends around the fire. good times. The other actors in the movie also do a good job. Any fan of psychedelic-era music and activities should watch this movie. It might bring back some memories, but what do i know, i wasn't around then. Regardless of what others think, i would definitely recommend this movie. I managed to pick mine up on amazon for about 4 dollars. so what do you have to lose?

I really liked the movie. Doing the dead show thing for many years during the late 80's and throughout the 90's I can distinguish between complete fiction and what experiences may have wanted to be conveyed. The movie has some good music, pretty decent acting and a point to make. Tara looks really cute doing the hippy thing and the girl/boy thing really does remind me of some great times and rocky roads. I can personally relate to the balancing act of school/shows/girls/drugs. All in all, it is a bit corny, but real life can be, most scripts are, and I find it to be much better than most the crap I see being made. I bought the DVD with a stack of others and actually kept it and have enjoyed watching it more than once. Worth checking out.

Very interesting movie. I got to see it at Dobie in Austin on its second day, and I was pleasantly surprised with it. One thing I liked about Around the Fire was that the movie had a very balanced view of drugs. Not preachy like an afterschool special, but also not sugarcoating their effects either. WARNING - The next few paragraphs have a spoiler. - WARNING One of my criticisms is that there was not much that indicated _why_ Simon had a major change in his life. Most people who get out of drug addictions have some kind of spiritual experience, or encounter with God that changes them. (AA would be a good example of this approach.) I find it hard to believe that he would change so quickly. It seems like one minute he is in rehab with all of these internal demons, and the next minute he is all cool again and is willing to stir rice and not sell LSD. Other than that though, I really dug this movie and will be seeing it again. For me, it is an interesting look at a world that I have been intrigued by, but have not gone into. (I especially liked the LSD trip scenes that let the audience member see what an LSD trip is like.)

This is a most ridiculous attempt at drama. A spoiled brat rich kid feels like he got the short end of the silver spoon, and decides that he needs the "freedom" and "sincerity" of a bunch of drug-hungry '90s-era hippies following SOMEone around on Tour. . . the Dead were long gone by the time this was released, so perhaps we mean Phish? Either way, it's crap, and if anyone dressed like the kids in this movie, they'd be dismissed even by pseudo-hippies. Of course it wants you to wait around for a learned-my-lesson change of heart and life, but who really cares if or where these people turn? You'd get more depth from a coloring book. It seems like it was written by a 22-year-old who spent two days doing drugs with some hippies and felt like s/he had a handle on some kind of magical scene that would lure in poor neglected trust fund children. To be perfectly fair, if you happen to be a well-to-do, feeling-sorry-for-yourself teen or pre-teen, you might like this. Especially if you haven't had enough anti-drug messages crammed down your throat, because this is yet another. Although if you're looking for any REAL reasons why you shouldn't do drugs, or any idea of what they are really like, that isn't here at all. It's as fake as the sparkly-bright tie-dyes and Tara Reid's perfect lipgloss-hippiedom.

This movie didn't get very wide distribution, but it's worth catching on HBO or on video. The story shows the inside of two different but interconnected worlds (affluence & Grateful Dead culture) without resorting to caricatures or cliches. The cast is stellar, and while the story plods at times it is overall very sensitively written. Production quality is outstanding for a low-budget flick, too.