There seems to be a trend for the minute for adult films which use casual or infrequent drug use as a jumping off point for comedy, and many of these films have been pretty successful comedies at the box- office. The short film The Badger Promise sort of fits into this genre since it is driven by the fact that all of its characters are on magic mushrooms. I have never done these but I'm guessing that whatever the experience for those involved, that the experience for the designated driver or conscientious objector is roughly the same no matter what the substance. That experience is mostly less fun than everyone else is having, although perhaps it is still fun.
That is the experience with The Badger Promise; it is a funny film in some ways, but generally it is not going to be quite as funny unless you have direct connection to the experience – either at that moment or otherwise. In the context of the film, the dialogue is pretty natural and convincing – it doesn't feel heavily scripted, but also doesn't feel like random nonsense made up by the actors as they went along. For sure it gave me a few chuckles. The problem is that it never manages to make the casual viewer feel like we are with the group, so for me, despite a few beers, I still felt like the judge-sober one at the party, struggling to see and feel things quite like the others.
The actors are not the fault because they are really convincing, however the dialogue does not have enough moments of accessibility to keep the viewer in the circle. The darker material doesn't work which is a surprise considering this seems to be the central narrative device. It looks and sounds good (an whoever's house it is, I am jealous) but the content is not there to the point of building the comedy and drawing the viewer into the joke, even if there are quite a few good lines and moments along the way.
