A good-looking but aimless couple gets locked into a vicious cycle of stonerdom in director Shaka King’s debut feature. Amari Cheatom (who had a brief part in “Django Unchained”) is Lyle, a decent guy locked into a heartless job as the repossession muscle for Manny’s Rent-to-Buy. He lives with Nina (performance artist Trae Harris), who has a more pleasant but equally dead-end job leading tours of the Brooklyn Children’s Museum.
The other main character is Mary Jane, a k a marijuana, which dominates the couple’s every waking hour. For a while, their stoner haze is played mostly for laughs, as the movie searches for a plot.
They live in Bed-Stuy, and King has an endearing feel for the grubby apartment buildings, dingy bodegas and foul mouths of the borough. This is a Brooklyn that no lifestyle editor would go near.
Eventually the narrative settles into something like a recovery story, a bit of a letdown, although even the expected trying-to-quit moments have charm. Nina suggests they lay off the weed: “See how it feels.” “I know how it feels,” responds Lyle. “That’s why I smoke.” The movie at last finds its legs in a windup that has great compassion for these sweet, lost souls.