Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus and 2012
Director: Sebastián Silva
Year Released: 2013
Rating: 1.0
An American (Michael Cera) staying in Chile gets friends together - and a strange hippie they meet named Crystal Fairy (Gaby Hoffmann) - to find a San Pedro cactus (and steal it if need be), cook it up in the desert, drink the juice and have a drug experience together (mescaline!). The best road movies generally have a sense of self-discovery and wonderment about them, but this one is numb inside (and never funny, unless you find the idea of a woman with an abundance of body hair amusing) with Cera's character fiending hard for the drug and the guys he's with just trying to have a good time. The only thing the gang discovers at the end is that their female companion, Ms. Fairy, is actually a dominatrix: so much for powerful revelations (character development is an afterthought, man). Makes Miserable Miracle by Henri Michaux seem all the more essential in comparison.
