Crystal Fairy & The Magical Cactus, My Glib Review

Glib Reviews Of Vaguely Recent DVD Releases. 

Crystal Fairy & The Magical Cactus
- Directed by Sebastian Silva.

Director Silva was previously best known as the director of ‘The Maid,’ which is one of my favourite movies in recent years. I shied away from Crystal Fairy, though as I have/had a bit of ‘Michael Cera fatigue.’ I have heard, though working in a video store, wildly varying reports on what this movie is like. He’s closer to his self parody in ‘This Is The End,’ than he is the dorky cute Juno boyfriend, or George Michael. He’s a dick.

The movie starts with a very lively house party, in Chile, where Jamie (Cera’s character) is that guy who has always had lots of kinds of drugs, or so he just has to tell you, talking about drugs, like foodies talk about food, notes of this or that in the weed, that coke was cut with blah blah, that kind of blather that we all remember from going to house parties in our twenties.

He affects a kind of Millennial Larry David-ness, (I know, ewwww!) that annoys you as it annoys his compadres in looking to have some mescaline straight from the San Pedro cactus. But he’s also likeable enough that his friends, three brothers, with various levels of English, still follow him, and his 'command' of their mission.

What makes the movie, though is the presence of the eponymous Crystal Fairy (Gaby Hoffman), a young earnest hippie chick who is constantly trying to get the boys to be healthy, along their journey, cleanse themselves for the big high. Jamie (who she calls ‘Pollo’ or Chicken) loves and hates her for joining their journey, despite inviting her in the first place.

All his energy is wound up tightly in getting and consuming the cactus juice. She is trying to have ‘an experience.’ Hoffman’s performance is subtle and nuanced and those Frida Kahlo eyebrows! Her character makes the film worth watching far more than the kid who is so obsessed with getting high, that he misses most of the fun in doing so. In the end, it’s her film to walk out of, having actually transformed, while the others, especially Cera learned some things, she is the one transformed. His creepy character is redeemed somewhat, and aptly. He didn’t learn everything, like he was sure he would, but he learned something.




8.1111 Stupid Boys Who Can’t Enjoy Themselves Unless They Are Putting Someone Else Down outta 10

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