Been there, more or less, and pretty much done that. Sebastián Silva does a fine job of capturing the vibe of the 20-something psychoactive drug road trip thing. I went on a couple of those, much like this one, but not to a foreign country. Well, New Orleans is 'foreign' is a sense, with it's unique scene(s) and culture. Silva got the way too into the hippy Castaneda girl w/ the aura, meditation and sketch book thing quite well. But much credit to the wonderful Gaby Hoffman for that. She's in fine form here in more than one way. I felt for the Chilean guys having to put up with the gueros and their nonsense. But the movie overall kept a fairly light, innocent feel, w/ Silva maintaining a fitting tone through most of the film. And Cera just nails the slacker American guy abroad who reeks of spoiled privilege and just wants to party and have no responsibility. But it's all on his schedule and terms. Not a bad 90-some minutes. 3.2 stars

You keep waiting for something to happen but this film just meanders through a drug never-ending party of 20 something year old characters. Seeing Crystal Fairy totally nude for significant minutes is certainly interesting but the guys never truly connect with her. The end is emotional but it happens too abruptly. Not a movie I would recommend.

Depending on your mood you could either enjoy the movie unfolding or be annoyed as hell. Pace is slow, so prepare. Gaby Hoffmann absolutely steals the show with her completely believable performance. Even though she is nude for some of the movie, it is not titillating and perfectly fits her character. Michael Cera's character is not very likable but it serves it's purpose and he does a great job. The other actors gave nice performances as well. So, if you are filling chill, relax and watch the movie unfold.

Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus is a likable enough film, but I defy anyone to explain why. The two main characters certainly aren't likable, the plot is a bit thin, and, other than a revelation from Crystal Fairy (Gabby Hoffmann) at the end, the whole thing just sort of leaves you hanging. Despite that, I liked it. Jamie (Michael Cera) is a narcissistic and boorish American tourist who embarks on a road trip with three locals to find the rare San Pedro cactus, known for its hallucinogenic traits. The scenery is nice enough and Cera is fantastic as the truly detestable lead character. I guess that that's good enough for me.

I thoroughly enjoyed this, but recognize it's a chill movie. You have to be comfortable to chill and let it unfold. I also found it an extremely realistic depiction of traveling in your 20's in a certain milieu. That means it meanders a bit, and you're left with strong memories but not a simple "this was the point of what just happened" message. Like that trip you took, you go back to it, to remembered people, images and moments, and kind of piece it together in your own narrative over time. All the acting is great. Michael Cera is a painfully annoying American and also someone you recognize well, maybe with even a cringeworthy awareness that there are brief moments of cluelessness that look personally familiar. Give it a try.

College student experience, script and production. Cera's character is so irritating it's hard to get through until he "transforms" from his magical experience.

This film was almost good.

One of the worst movies I've ever seen... Waste of time. Using boxxy software i can find all cool movies

Honest and somewhat unflinching.

I loved this film, in a quiet, entranced way. The human variety, the human connection, conveyed so perfectly and so naturally by the fabulous actors totally caught me up in the film's story. Beautiful, gentle, and subtly profound. Great flick!

The ending feels unsatisfying but the movie is saved by Cera's flawless, effortless performance.

I have watched this movie twice now. There was a gap of a couple years between viewings. I liked it even better the second time. A young USAer (Michael Cera) is in Chile hanging with some local friends. He wants to go on a mission up north to find a San Pedro cactus which has psychedelic, mind altering, properties and take it on the beach with his friends. They go to a party and he meets another Yank who calls herself Crystal Fairy (played by Gaby Hoffman). She is a type of hippy abroad, very "spiritual" and sort of sentimental. So in the momentary impulse of fellow yanks abroad, and a nose full of coke, the Cera character invites her on the cactus trip but forgets about it the next day. Turns out she ends up joining them on the trip and butts heads with the very irritating guy that Cera plays, really well by the way. He is just a jerk. He has a sort of pushy, impatient,USA American go-getter personality in addition to being a psychedelic tourist. While Crystal is all airy fairy and wanting to ritualize everything in the spirit of togetherness. The brothers they go on this road trip with are Sebastián Silva and his actual brothers. They are at times amused and appalled at the northerners and their behavior. Sebastián Silva's approach in very interesting in writing and directing plus casting himself in this secondary role. In a way, with the quirks of the Yanks, I wondered if there was more of an intention to ridicule the USA attitudes. I mean the examples here are either the trust fund baby CEO type, represented by Cara, and the very sweet sentimental end of us, yet damaged, represented in the Hoffmann character. And perhaps, more directly, a comment upon the growing movement of psychedelic tourism to South America. I think this is a very fine movie of a sort a lot of people wouldn't particularly like. Bad IMDb reviews, etc. it's not a mainstream type movie. Cera is very good is expressing discomfort at the outset of his trip. Seemed authentic to me. I'm hoping more people will now see the movie because of the presence of Gaby Hoffmann. She is a wonderful and unusual actor whose star is on the rise because of Transparent and I guess she is also on Girls.

Gaby Hoffman and Michael Cera are a perfect fit for these roles, and the movie itself had both it's great parts and drab parts. It's a fun and touching story for anyone who can stick through it.

Fascinatingly little flick. Cera's movie.

Clever twist on typical drug road-trip movies, as it shows the planning more than the tripping and also reveals the ultimately fabricated, ingenuine nature that drug culture and the experiences it produces has. Pretty unstructured, but it's improvised, so, obviously. Gaby Hoffmann makes her character so fascinating and sad, her performance makes up for most of the sloppiness in the film-making. Even if not everyone would love this I still recommend it due to its originality.

Fantastic acting by Michael Cera and Gaby Hoffman, however I was bored half the time. I enjoyed the depiction of American backpackers with Cera's character on one side of the spectrum and Hoffman's on the other. Carelessly druggy...as to be expected.

It is what it is, and that's good enough.

Defintely not a comedy, to all those pseudo-critics that call this movie a failed comedy. Not for everybody, but a good and interesting movie for a certain audience able to understand some subtleties.

Enjoyed this movie a lot.

This is actually a pretty typical indie movie in some ways. There's group bonding during beach bonfires, there's a road trip in pursuit of some wacky goal, and there are lots of quirky idiosyncrasies, mostly belonging to Crystal Fairy, a character that seems to embody the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope in some ways. And yet it feels so different. I had a feeling, based on the quirky opening titles and the odd pictures of Michael Cera cradling a cactus, that I was going to love this movie, and I was right. There's something that feels fresh about the movie in a way that makes you forget about how common some of its elements are. Maybe it's Sebastian Silva's unique new voice. First off, this is the kind of movie that I love just because every performance feels so natural and great, sort of mumblecore-y. Michael Cera is fantastically unlikable, to the point that I was almost afraid that I'd have to sit through that for the whole movie. Luckily, he gets better, but even if he sustained his terribleness throughout, I think I'd still really like him, because he's terrible in such a unique way. He's extremely enthusiastic and passionate about some things, entertaining the prostitutes at the beginning and 'rescuing' Crystal Fairy from the dance floor, but he's so weirdly insistent and some things, like finding the cactus, and he creates so many awkward situations for himself because he's such a dick, in kind of a Michael Scott-ish way. But Cera has these facial expressions that just kill me, and he's fascinating throughout. Then there's Gaby Hoffmann, excellent as Crystal Fairy. She overcomes those MPDG traits because 1. she never shares a romantic connection with any of the guys, 2. she doesn't specifically exist to change the protagonist, even if much of Jamie's arc hinges on her, 3. there's a sort of reason to her crazy behavior, a method to her madness (I'll discuss more later), and 4. she has tons of little lines or acts that show that she's her own person. I love how she sort of expresses her annoyance for Jamie in good-natured ways, playfully teasing him about his behavior and laughing as she says "this boy is driving me loco!" She has a personality, even if her general wackiness is pretty broad. Jamie and Crystal Fairy are the most important characters, but Juan Andres, Agustin, and Jose Miguel Silva deserve a lot of recognition, and they're one of the main reasons I love the movie. They're great straight men to the craziness of the two leads, to begin with, but more importantly, their performances are so naturalistic and great. Each of the characters feel so deeply familiar and real in a way you don't often see in Hollywood movies. There's Lel's vague confusion whenever English goes untranslated ("what the fuck is she saying?" he asks his brother after she tells her fear). There's all of Pilo's expressions, which are all just great, like his laughter when Jamie calls her 'Crystal Hairy' and his look of deep concentration and interest when he talks to the scientists towards the end. And Champa is just a good guy, telling Jamie when he's being an asshole and being kinder to Crystal than Jamie expects him to. When you watch movies like this, you realize that in most big movies, every single character expression and reaction has a specific purpose; everything is so calculated to convey a simplistic emotion or serve as a punchline. Movies like this (or Happy Christmas, or Before Sunrise, etc.) show that in reality, expressions and reactions are much different. Not everything has a specific purpose. I'm not explaining this very well, but maybe the word I'm looking for is 'rhythm.' In most big movies, each scene has kind of a predictable feel to it. That's not a bad thing, it's just the overall pace is one you would expect. Something about movies like this, though defy simple categorization or rhythm, though, and I can't tell exactly what it is; it could be Silva's camera movements, or the way he chooses to frame unexpected subjects, or the lack of constant music in the background, or the length of the scenes, or the characters talking over each other, or, as I said, the Silva brothers' great performances. Let's get the only real mistake of the movie out of the way: Crystal's third-act confession around the bonfire that she was raped. This is kind of unfortunate, because it's maudlin in a way that the rest of the movie wasn't at all, and because it provides too simple of an explanation for Crystal's personality. As she started her story, I immediately knew what it was going to be, and I kind of dreaded it. The whole thing just seemed a little unnecessary, and I didn't feel completely happy with it like I did with the rest of the movie. That said, because of that naturalistic feel that the movie has, because of the performances and direction, the scene went pretty much as well as it could've gone. Hoffmann's performance was great, and I liked her character so much that I felt emotion during the scene despite my problems with it. Really, what makes the scene, though, are the other characters' reactions. I love Champa's look of stunned concern, and Pilo's deep frowning. And, of course, there's the great finish: Jamie starts crying himself. First of all, that's unexpectedly touching. Second of all, there's a great line when Champa says, "this is her time, man. Stop taking her time" or whatever. It's hilarious, and the perfect line for the moment, teasing Jamie's usual attention-hogging and adding a dose of levity to the dark moment. So overall, though I didn't like the choice to give Crystal a rape storyline, it was pulled off really well, so I can't complain too much. That's pretty much it, but I wanted to end by saying that I just really liked Jamie's simple arc. I like that he's so insistent on staying true to his plans, and he's probably a little jealous of Crystal, but she shows him that he needs to just chill out and enjoy himself. And he's a dick to her for so much of the movie that when he does act kind to her, it's really touching; I love that moment when he tells her he was worried about her and she says, "you were?" and they hug. I wanted to keep hanging out with these characters for longer.