Why More Stoner Buddy Comedy Movies Need to Feature Women like Kristen Stewart and Alia Shawkat’s The Wrong Girls
Photo courtesy of NEON
For too long, the stoner comedy has been a stubbornly heteronormative, male-dominated clubhouse. We all know the classic tropes: two lovable, unpolished bros sitting on a ragged couch, dodging adulthood, and getting swept up in a chain of increasingly absurd, anti-authority misadventures. From Pineapple Express to Harold & Kumar, Hollywood has heavily capitalized on the cinematic joy of the male slacker fog.
Yet, did you know that women cannabis consumers are on trend to surpass men? It’s true! According to annual market analysis reports, women are the fastest-growing consumer segment in the legal market. More women than ever are unlocking the benefits of flower: 42% of US cannabis consumers were women in 2025, up from 35% in 2020, with adoption growing especially fast in sleep, wellness, and low-dose edible/beverage categories.
Historically, women’s perspectives have been routinely minimized in cultural dialogues, which means female cannabis consumers rarely get to see their own lived-in realities, deep introspection, or subversive humor reflected on the big screen. Here at High Herstory, as bestie filmmakers who love movies, we were so excited when we found out there’s a new female stoner comedy coming to theaters this August!
The Wrong Girls, written and directed by Dylan Meyer, and produced by NEON (Anora, Anatomy of a Fall, Longlegs) stars Kristen Stewart and Alia Shawkat as codependent stoner besties living paycheck to paycheck/bong rip to bong rip who get themselves caught in a pickle over a case of mistaken identity that throws their lives into chaos. We were so stoked when NEON offered us a chance to screen the film early so we could tell you about it!
Photo courtesy of NEON
What makes The Wrong Girls work so beautifully is the undeniable, deeply lived-in chemistry between Kristen Stewart and Alia Shawkat. Stewart brings a delightfully twitchy, deadpan, and deeply relatable energy to her character. She embodies that specific type of stoner who is incredibly perceptive but completely unbothered by societal expectations. Alia Shawkat brings her signature dry wit to her character’s loveable airhead archetype, dropping profound existential truths in one breath and completely forgetting why she walked into the kitchen in the next. The way these two effortlessly pass a joint without breaking eye contact, and slip into their cultural obsession driven, coded language that only exists between inseparable best friends is undeniably adorable.
Mainstream cinema readily allows men to be blissfully codependent boneheads, but it routinely demands that women on screen remain hyper-optimized, manicured, and locked into rigid scripts of perfection. A truly authentic female stoner film acts as a protective sanctuary from those patriarchal pressures, allowing women and femmes to be messy, unpolished, hilariously cynical, and fiercely independent.
Photo courtesy of NEON
Stoner Buddy Comedies is a GOATed Genre of Film: The History of Films that Portray Cannabis
Beginning with Reefer Madness (1936), an anti-drug propaganda film that turned into a cult classic. Originally made as a severe and misguided warning during the Great Depression, the film later gained ironic cult status among college students and fans of counterculture humor. Next came the counter-culture of the 60’s and 70’s which saw cannabis enter mainstream films in a more realistic way with Easy Rider and Up in Smoke featuring Cheech and Chong. Cheech and Chong were early pioneers in the stoner buddy film world and The Wrong Girls has picked up the torch.
Modernizing the Slacker Formula with Sci-Fi Subversion
Following the trail blazed by early stoner counterculture, the genre largely calcified around a very specific, male-centric formula: the aimless slacker who stumbles into an accidental crime plot. What makes The Wrong Girls a massive breath of fresh air is how writer-director Dylan Meyer perfectly honors those foundational "bro" tropes while completely modernizing the execution.
Photo courtesy of NEON
Instead of just running from local thugs or chasing fast food, Stewart and Shawkat’s characters ingest a strange, experimental drug that mistakenly gives them telepathic abilities. Suddenly, they aren't just trying to figure out how to pay their rent, they are actively dodging dangerous rivals, corporate scientists, and an AMAZING stacked cast of chaotic characters played by comedy royalty like Seth Rogen, Kate McKinnon, and LaKeith Stanfield...and GeenaGina Davis. Did we mention GeenaGina Davis?! Adding a mind-reading sci-fi element to a stoner mystery keeps the high-stakes tension of a classic NEON thriller, while letting the script dive into a hilarious, deeply surreal exploration of what happens when two codependent best friends (spoiler alert) can literally hear each other's inner monologues (and, yes, even the inner thoughts of their cats).
The BUD-dy Dynamic
In traditional male-led stoner buddy movies, the friendship is often expressed through crude pranks, competitive video games, or a shared, silent apathy toward growing up. The Wrong Girls flips this dynamic entirely on its head by showcasing the radical, chaotic reality of female platonic intimacy that is rooted in deep love and care for each other, even in moments of conflict. They literally share a brain cell, finish each other's sentences, and move through the world as a singular unit. Watching Stewart and Shawkat weaponize that hyper-connected bestie energy against a world of straight-laced authority figures is both incredibly validating and inherently hysterical.
As we look at the changing landscape of cannabis culture, films like The Wrong Girls are indeed super fun, but also a necessary cultural course correction. For decades, mainstream media has told women that if they consume cannabis, they must do so discreetly, packaged neatly under the guise of "clean wellness," micro-dosed tinctures, and aesthetic yoga routines.
The Wrong Girls starring Kristen Stewart & Alia Shawkat
This movie shatters that polished, patriarchal expectation by giving women the exact same cinematic right that men have enjoyed for nearly a century: the right to be beautifully unpolished, brilliantly cynical, and unapologetically stoned on the big screen. It proves that a female-led stoner film doesn't need to be sanitized or polished.
We also love that in a world of streaming, NEON has given this film an actual IRL theatrical release. Seeing The Wrong Girls in a physical theater is a radical act of cultural realignment in a world obsessed with the same old male-driven superhero movies. Let’s give our money to a female directed film so Hollywood gets the message that we want more, please!
While there were moments where we wished these characters would have shown a little more common sense or agency, overall The Wrong Girls is a monumental step forward for representation. It’s an impressive directorial debut for Dylan Meyer, and quite frankly, the kind of hazy, high-stakes summer comedy we’ve been hoping for. It honors the best parts of the classic stoner buddy genre while incorporating iconoclastic humor and genuine heart that only the girlies can provide.
Watch the trailer now!