Hiding
behind masks that cover their vulnerability, two
Americans in Chile, Jamie (Michael Cera) and
Crystal Fairy, a young free-spirited woman (Gaby
Hoffmann), spar off against each other in
Chilean filmmaker Sebastián Silva's
psychedelic comedy Crystal Fairy. The film was
nominated for the Grand Jury Prize and won the
Directing Award for World Cinema at the 2013
Sundance Film Festival. Jamie's act is one of
controlling, overly-aggressive behavior but not
quite the “Ugly American,” while Crystal's is
the opposite but equally phony, a caricature of
a “hippie” filled with love for everyone who
spouts clichés about chakras and mother
earth, walks around her hotel room naked,
engages in healing rituals, and chides the
others for eating junk food.
It's hard to tell if the director is using her
persona as a means of ridiculing these ideas or
just showing how inauthentic she is. In any
event, Crystal and Jamie's way of being, while
it fills a need for them, has costs in
sacrificing who they really are. On the
surface, the film is a road trip to find a
psychedelic substance in the San Pedro cactus
plant which, when boiled for twelve hours and
ingested, has the properties of mescaline (it
has been said that the actors used mescaline
while shooting the film). In essence, however,
the film is not really about mescaline but about
releasing rigid patterns of behavior and
discovering new ways of interacting that are
more fulfilling.
The film begins at a party where Silva's
handheld camerawork and improvised conversation
is established. On a cocaine high, the caustic
Jamie invites a partygoer, a girl who calls
herself Crystal Fairy to accompany him and his
friends on a quest to repeat the spiritual high
described in Aldous Huxley's book The Doors of
Perception. When Crystal takes him up on the
offer the next day (which he has forgotten that
he even made), he is dismayed by her annoying
behavior, even though his Chilean friends,
Champa (Juan Andres Silva) and his two brothers
Lel (Jose Miguel Silva) and Pilo (Augustin
Silva), seem more tolerant, perhaps because at
least one does not understand English. Their
trip to the ocean to locate and purchase a piece
of the San Pedro cactus from reluctant residents
is one of the comic highlights of the film, even
though Jamie has to eventually use surreptitious
means to acquire it.
Crystal Fairy ends up in a good place even
though it is more than a little irritating in
getting there. During the trip, Jamie and
Crystal talk to each other, but at cross
purposes. The results are unpredictable but,
suffice it to say, their longing for a spiritual
experience does not take the form that Huxley
described. Michael Cera's role is out of
character from the lovable, nerdy self he has
played in earlier movies, but he is terrific in
this film, totally natural and very real, as is
Hoffmann in her role, both continuing to reveal
a new dimension to their character. Ultimately,
the group's sharing about their fears and their
discovery of how their act no longer serves
their purpose in life is more open and honest
than anything I've seen in films recently and
stays in the memory.
