CRYSTAL FAIRY AND THE MAGICAL CACTUS (Mongrel, 2013) D: Sebastián Silva, w/ Michael Cera, Gaby Hoffmann. Rating: NN DVD package: N Rating: NN
In Crystal Fairy And The Magical Cactus, Michael Cera and Gaby Hoffmann come across a little like Woody Allen and Diane Keaton in one of Allen’s early comedies – Sleeper, maybe – but minus the comedy and romance.
Like Allen’s persona, Cera’s Jamie is anxious, neurotic, hypercritical and passive-aggressive. But unlike Allen, he’s determined to control everyone around him. Hoffmann, as Crystal Fairy, plays an over-enthusiastic airhead full of empty spirituality.
The two American tourists in Chile meet at a party, and he invites her to join him, his Chilean roommate and the roommate’s brothers on an expedition to score some of the titular psychedelic cactus and trip out at a remote beach.
The journey points up the unthinking arrogance and condescension of the Americans toward the Chileans they meet and Jamie’s growing, grating dislike of Crystal. Then the drugs kick in, and what was shaping up as a fairly savage satire dissolves, after some goofing around, into high emotion and a small bit of stoned bonding.
Director Sebastián Silva finds ways to suggest the feel of a mescaline high without shoving faux psychedelia at us, and gives good views of small-town Chile and the country’s beautiful landscape.
In the brief extras interviews, he tells us the movie is loosely based on an incident in his own life.
EXTRAS Making-of interviews. English audio. English, Spanish subtitles.
