[CRYSTAL FAIRY opens in
Cleveland on Friday August 2nd exclusively at the Cedar Lee Theatre.]
Review by Bob Ignizio
It may not be a popular position to hold in some circles, but
taking hallucinogenic drugs can be fun. At times, depending on the
attitude with which the taker proceeds, it can even result in a
profound experience, or at least an experience that seems profound to
the one having it. What's not nearly as much fun is being stone cold
sober and hanging out with a bunch of guys tripping their eyeballs
out. And however profound an experience these hypothetical druggie
friends might have, any attempts to relate the earth shattering
personal insights they've just undergone will be far less compelling
to the listener than the teller. Sure, there will probably be a few
moments when the intoxicated friends do something funny, but most
likely you'll get bored pretty fast if you're not in the same frame
of mind. Which brings us to CRYSTAL FAIRY.
If you've never had the
experience of hanging out with a bunch of twenty-something dudes as
they drive around trying to score drug, then hanging out some more
while they take the drugs and spend hours looking at their hand and
laughing, CRYSTAL FAIRY
will more or less give you that experience. The plus side is that the
movie is only an hour and a half, whereas your average LSD or
mushroom trip can last all night. The downside is, it's still pretty
dull and annoying.
If there's a redeeming quality
to the film, it's that Michael Cera's character, who puts on a front
of being a more serious seeker of consciousness expansion by always
quoting Huxley's Doors of
Perception,
does actually have a character arc and grow as a person over the
course of the film. His transformation is enabled as much by learning
to feel sympathy for another human being, specifically the “Crystal
Fairy” (Gabby Hoffman) of the title, as it is by anything he
experiences while under the influence. That makes for some nice
moments of genuine human emotional connection towards the end. It's
still a mighty tough slog to get there. Maybe some drugs would help.
2 out of 4 stars.
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