‘Into the Weeds’ Review: Man Versus Monsanto

In 2018, Dewayne Johnson won a lawsuit against Monsanto; he had argued that the company’s glyphosate-based weedkiller, which he had used as a school district groundskeeper in Northern California, caused him to develop non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Jurors found that Monsanto had failed to warn consumers of the potential risks.

The company, which had just been acquired by Bayer, was initially ordered to pay $289 million. Although that award was later reduced, Johnson’s suit was at the vanguard of tens of thousands of similar claims that linked Monsanto’s herbicide to cancer. (Bayer has repeatedly said that the product does not cause cancer.)

The Canadian filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal is known for environmental documentaries (“Manufactured Landscapes,” “Anthropocene: The Human Epoch”) that emphasize aesthetics as much as advocacy. In “Into the Weeds,” subtitled “Dewayne ‘Lee’ Johnson vs. Monsanto Company,” she explores similar concerns through the more conventional framework of a legal battle.

The documentary delves into the specifics of Johnson’s case. Various lawyers from his side walk viewers through the logistics of the lawsuit; the movie makes clear just how difficult it is for one person to take on a corporation that has vast resources, dexterity in countering evidence and — the film argues — unfairly easy access to regulators.

More potent as muckraking than as filmmaking, the documentary also spends time with Johnson, who is shown applying ointment to the lesions that, as of shooting, still appear all over his body and leave blood stains on his sheets. Elsewhere, “Into the Weeds” meets with others in the United States and Canada who developed lymphoma and had used glyphosate-based herbicide. Their stories illustrate the breadth of the ecological and agricultural challenges that remain.

Into the Weeds
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 36 minutes. Rent or buy on most major platforms.