Normally, when you hear a character in a film call the (in)famous philosopher Martin Heidegger “Heide-gegger,” you are to understand that this character is and will be the butt of some joke. Add a thick Western twang, and you are to further understand that this person is the sort of uneducated country bumpkin who shoots beer bottles by the creek or leers threateningly at city folk passersby in a rundown gas station.

In Tim Blake Nelson’s Leaves of Grass (2009), this character is, instead, one of the two or three sharpest in the film; and, while some of the more familiar “country bumpkin” aspects are retained, they help flesh out his personality rather than stunt it. This is one of the many features of Nelson’s screenplay that distinguish it as a well-crafted work, paired with a charmingly dynamic performance by Edward Norton.

This character is Brady Kincaid, a fun-loving pothead who has built up his own sophisticated hydroponic system for growing weed in his hometown of Little Dixie, Oklahoma. He works for a wealthy Jewish businessman named Pug Rothbaum (Richard Dreyfuss), and is being pressured to expand his activities. Brady relents, as he’s about to have a child with his loving wife (Melanie Lynskey), and wants to turn over a new leaf for their sake. Rothbaum, however, isn’t having it, especially since Brady owes him money for setting up his farm; so he orders Brady to come up to Tulsa for a chat. […]