Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus (2013)

I watch so many movies they're just a forgetful blur. Same boring ass plots over and over and over. There's only like five stories to tell. And then there's the rare movie like this one that thankfully falls in the "Other" category. I must like it a lot because it has a persistent memory.To be honest, I saw a lot of my much younger self in Cera's character. Elitist, hardcore traveler convinced he has a better grasp on sniffing out adventure than most. And how to maximize the experience once revealed by experiencing what you are experiencing -- like a double track recording. And the annoyance of being stuck with silly people who managed to worm their way into your adventure making it less wonderful than it could have been. Their bad manners and immaturity defile the sanctity of the quest. They take snapshots of each other. There are no do overs in adventure.

Jamie (Michael Cera) is an American traveling in Chile. At a drug filled party with his friend Champa, he meets a spirited Crystal Fairy (Gaby Hoffmann). Jamie and Champa go on a road trip with 2 friends to take mescaline from the San Pedro cactus. They find Crystal trying to pay some women with 2 drawings of fairies. Crystal is a real hippie. Champa takes her on the trip. Jamie would rather leave her behind while he obsessively searches for the new high.Jamie is selfish and a little bit annoying. Crystal is a flighty hippie. The two actors are likable personalities which keeps the unlikeability of the characters to a minimal. This is a hazy unstructured road trip hell bent on getting a specific high. Jamie is an obsessive character. It's interesting to see Michael Cera in this role. The story is a bit light weight until the serious ending.

Gaby Hoffman makes this film. She parades around naked, seemingly in a permanent state of euphoria, extolling the most hippy dippy claptrap philosophies about inner peace and finding yourself since the Swingin' Sixties. When she isn't behaving like a Looney Toon, she can be discovered doodling away in her sketchbook, which is full of oblique drawings. And her armpit hair! I hope that forest of follicles is fake... Otherwise Hoffman must have had to use fertiliser to grow it that thick. I bet the second the movie was complete, those shears were out and moving at a record speed.She is accompanying Michael Cera and his three rather underdrawn Mexican friends on a quest to find a rare cacti plant, which when liquidised and drunk. is supposed to give you the ultimate high. They plan to imbibe this miracle brew on the beach, under the stars... the setting is everything, right? Cera himself has shades of being a public school boy twit... you can tell by his put-on mannerisms and his laboured talk about drugs he's completely out of his depth. He reminds me of the kid in the video for 'Pretty Fly For A White Guy', in that every scene of him trying to be 'cool' is Cringe City.The story is simple in structure, has no big surprises along the way and probably could be told in half the length. Yet, there is something oddly endearing about these five young wash-outs... (Not Cera though, he's just annoying) their friendship and journey is enough to keep all but the most impatient viewer glued to the screen. And when Crystal Fairy's tragic past is exposed towards the end, it is a highly effective moment which, in hindsight, explains an awful lot. Can you say 'coping mechanism'? You could, and I suspect you'd be correct. 6/10

People who have rated this movie just don't get it. The movie was one of those funny charming movies that you just snuggle up next to and become a part of. People who have rated this movie as awful seem to maybe not understand it, maybe those people should keep to their cheap comedy American pie movies instead of getting involved in something they don't understand. Michael Cera did his usual wonderful job, in a wonderful film. I hope you do watch it, it's worth it. And I think this is one of my new favorite movies, I just want to watch it over and over again. And I suggest the people who have hated on it should do so as well, see if you find the beauty of it this time. I probably sound like some kind of high hippie right now but I'm just a normal dude that knows a good movie when I see one :)