6.2 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Jamie is a boorish, insensitive American twentysomething traveling in Chile, who somehow manages to create chaos at every turn. He and his friends are planning on taking a road trip north to experience a legendary shamanistic hallucinogen called the San Pedro cactus. In a fit of drunkenness at a wild party, Jamie invites an eccentric woman -- a radical spirit named Crystal Fairy -- to come along. What is meant to be a devil-may-care journey becomes a battle of wills as Jamie finds himself locking horns with his new traveling companion. But on a remote, pristine beach at the edge of the desert, the magic brew is finally imbibed, and the true adventure begins.
Starring: Michael Cera, Gaby Hoffmann, Sebastián SilvaComedy | 100% |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.38:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English: LPCM 2.0
English SDH, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Let's get this out of the way up front: It's quite possible that you will hate the two protagonists of Crystal Fairy & The Magical Cactus, played by
Arrested Development's Michael Cera and former child star Gaby Hoffmann. Or, at the very least, you'll hate one of them and be endlessly
annoyed with the other. But—and this is a huge but, so hold on for a second before clicking right out of this review—these character are
obnoxious by design, and their oversized egos serve to mask insecurities, uncertainties, and old wounds that have never healed. When the film finally
strips them of their guards, it makes the entire journey worthwhile.
And Crystal Fairy is a journey. Or, a trip, rather—in two senses—following a pair of privileged American gringos and three Chilean brothers as
they travel across the Atacama desert in search of a mescaline high derived from the "magical cactus" of the title. The film was directed by Sebastián
Silva (The Maid) almost on a lark; it was shot handheld, nearly entirely improvised, and made in eight days while Silva was waiting to begin
production on his next movie, the more complex psychological thriller, Magic Magic (also starring Cera and released this year). Consequently,
the film feels spontaneous in ways good and bad, but mostly good. It's South American mumblecore—low-key and D.I.Y., conversational and oh-so-
awkward.
Crystal Fairy
Crystal Fairy was made on the fly, shot digitally with a Red EPIC camera in natural light, on location, following the movements of the actors. (And not the other way around, with the actors trying to hit predetermined marks.) First-time DP Cristián Petit-Laurent must've had quite a challenge—and there are times when he struggles to keep the focus where it should be— but his style is every bit as spontaneous as the film itself. Sure, there are some blown-out highlights and some moments of softness when the actors slip in and out of the focus plane, but this is all part of Crystal Fairy's improvisational style. IFC's 1080p/AVC-encoded Blu-ray does nothing to detract from the experience. The noise that's present is almost certainly inherent to the source footage—do note that there is a lot of noise in all but the brightest scenes—and there are no major compression issues or other concerns. The film's color grading nails the hot, dry vibe of the desert, looking almost bleached at times—though, thankfully, not to the extent of something like Three Kings—and when the subject is in focus, there's plenty of high definition detail and texture in the image.
IFC's Blu-ray features two audio options, a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround mix and an uncompressed Linear PCM 2.0 stereo track. Both suit the quiet, dialogue-driven film just fine. Of course, the multichannel offering opens things up a bit with a modest amount of rear-channel activity—party ambience, desert wind, crashing waves, surround-sound orchestration—but nothing you'd really miss if you only have a stereo-capable home theater system. In both tracks, the scored and incidental music has good presence and clarity, and the characters' conversations are always balanced well in the mix and easy to understand. No issues here. The disc also includes optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles.
Crystal Fairy & The Magical Cactus is a slight but welcome departure for Michael Cera, who normally plays a wimpy nebbish but here plays, well, an insufferable nebbish, an all-talk ass who uses drugs to escape the reality of his not-yet-meaningful existence. He's paired opposite Gaby Hoffmann—the child star of Field of Dreams—as a dippy New Ager who speaks in the kind of pseudo-profound jargon you might see written in the Papyrus font on the packaging at a hippy health-food store. Together they make for the most obnoxious onscreen couple this year, but don't let that put you off. Crystal Fairy, which won the directing award for dramatic world cinema at this year's Sundance festival, is an intimate road trip movie that takes these characters on a journey to redemption and release. I imagine this one will pop up on Netflix or similar streaming/download services shortly, but IFC's Blu-ray release—with its solid picture and sound quality—is your best bet if you'd like to own the film. Recommended.
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