Breaking Habits

Sister Kate is a slightly odd nun. For one thing, she’s not Catholic, she’s not really affiliated with any religion, and her main business is selling marijuana derivatives. She does have a fascinating story, though, involving family betrayal, an involvement in the rapidly changing legal marijuana industry in California, political and religious opposition, gunfights, her son’s own crystal meth addiction, impoverishment and potential triumph. Like many documentaries, this is a case of an interesting interview subject compensating slightly for some middling film-making – it’s a little too taken with Sister Kate to really interrogate the more messy sides of her story particularly cleanly, and you do slightly feel that there’s something you’re not being told here (despite a couple of different viewpoints showing up in interviews, they’re never really given enough weight to counterbalance Kate). While there are interesting technicalities at the side about the current in-between state of marijuana sales in the US (where the legal exemptions are limited, local law enforcement is still zealously involved and gangster-like behaviour still remains part of the industry), this is mostly content to coast a little on how charming Sister Kate is. Which … she is, to an extent, but it doesn’t quite make this into a great documentary, so much as a great starting point for a documentary. The execution isn’t quite there.