What happens when a former Texas cop with a stunning record of drug arrests starts helping people fight the law? The grim answer lies in Never Get Busted, an addictive new documentary about cop-turned-rebel Barry Cooper that just played the El Dorado Film Festival.
The film, directed by David Anthony Ngo and Stephen McCallum, takes us back about 25 years, before marijuana was widely legalized in the United States, and casual pot users lived in fear of being pulled over and searched. One of the best cops at busting drug users and dealers was Barry Cooper, who so loved his job that he once trained his own drug-sniffing dog.
But as the film recounts, Cooper soon began to question the helpfulness — and decency — of raiding homes and breaking up families over drug possession. And so he switched sides, producing the hit Never Get Busted! DVD series, in which he shared a slew of tips for dodging arrest. (One of the weirdest: If you have marijuana in your car, keep a cat in the front seat, because it will distract and upset drug-sniffing dogs.)
For a while, Cooper is something of a man without a country. The editors of High Times are initially mistrustful, wondering if his promises to help drug users evade arrest is just a complicated sting operation. Cops, meanwhile, regard him as a traitor.
As Barry’s war on the war on drugs gets more ambitious, he takes risks that make him a huge target — even as he fights to set others free.
The Supporting Cast of Never Get Busted!
The film features a colorful supporting cast that includes Travis Boles, a Star Wars fan and wedding videographer who helps launch the Never Get Busted! series.
Boles attended an El Dorado Q&A after Friday’s screening of Never Get Busted! in which he swapped Star Wars stories with festival director Alexander Jeffery, wondered aloud whether a pet lizard named Jerry had inspired one of Cooper’s most audacious schemes, and discussed what the film had left out.
All in all, he thought Never Get Busted! did a good job of capturing a turbulent era.
“I don’t think they made a documentary that is any way unfair to him,” Boles told Jeffery from the stage of the South Arkansas Arts Center, heart of the local arts scene. “I think they made something that, really, of my life experience, captures that energy.”
Boles recounted to Jeffery that he ultimately went on to become an independent filmmaker thanks in part to his experiences making DVDs with Cooper. But ultimately he walked away from making the DVDs for several reasons, including the attention the series was getting from law enforcement officials who didn’t appreciate them that way Cooper’s fans did.
Never Get Busted! Skips a Few Years in the Life of Barry Cooper
As Boles noted, Never Get Busted! skips a few years and major events in order to get to where Barry is now, and to cover the most interesting parts of his saga within an agreeable feature-length runtime.
The film offers an exhilarating, fascinating look at how a keen legal mind can stand up to overzealous prosecutions. It is also an often infuriating watch, as you see how easily good people can be caught up in the courts.
What resonates, after the film ends, is the spirit of Barry Cooper, who could have profited from a broken system, and chose instead to fight it.
Never Get Busted premiered at Sundance in 2025, and is now making the festival rounds. You can read more of our El Dorado Film Festival coverage here.
