Crystal Fairy & The Magical Cactus
IFC Films | Release Date: July 12, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
67
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
20
Mixed:
4
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanJul 26, 2013
Part drug comedy, part psychological drama, the movie is slight, but only superficially so. As the closing credits role, we’re left not with a sense of a day at the beach, but of what might be swimming out there, in the dark of the abyss. Read full review
87
Film.comJordan HoffmanApr 9, 2013
It is a shaggy dog road movie, and a drug-hazy one at that, but beneath the silliness and character-based gags, Crystal Fairy is, I feel, an unusually insightful look at self-imposed false identities and group dynamics. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianMarc MohanJul 25, 2013
With barely a hint of trippy visuals, it captures the highs and lows of one mind-expanding surfside day. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Jul 10, 2013
For a moment, Crystal Fairy looks like it’s going to be a real fish-in-a-barrel satire, its rifles aimed at two very easy targets. But once a coked-out Cera invites Hoffmann on his road trip, a voyage he hopes will culminate with the consumption of a psychotropic cactus, the film gains a ramshackle quality that’s difficult to resist. Read full review
80
NPRJoel ArnoldJul 13, 2013
On their own, Crystal and Jamie might be two of the worst road-trip companions imaginable; when one gets going, it's easy to identify with the other's frustration. But together — fueled by drugs, forced to share a space, separated from what they take for granted — they reconsider how they value the people who are not ... them. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'HehirJul 11, 2013
It leaves you with provocative questions and memorable images rather than neatly wrapped answers, and with that feeling of imprecise mystery I remember so well from my own youthful experiences: Something beautiful and evanescent just happened, or almost happened. But you can’t describe it, and if you try to seize it, it vanishes into sand and salt and sun. Read full review
80
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlJul 5, 2013
The film is often beautiful and appealingly light. Every clear-eyed insight into why pushy people insist on pushing is matched by loose ensemble humor and lyric reveries. Read full review
75
Boston GlobePeter KeoughAug 3, 2013
Silva doesn’t resort to any fancy tricks to depict his characters’ inner experiences. But something happens nonetheless, a bonding of sorts that is almost, if not quite, convincing. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsJul 18, 2013
A minor revelation. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireJul 12, 2013
The result is a movie that ambles and takes its time, never revealing where it's going. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversJul 11, 2013
Cera, still one of a kind and still making us love him for it (Arrested Development – yes!), never flinches. Jamie is impossible to like. And yet we do because Cera plays him without an ounce of bogus ingratiation. He's terrific. Read full review
75
The PlaylistCory EverettApr 9, 2013
One of the most satisfying things about Crystal Fairy is that even though the lead character prefers to keep an ironic distance from things, the film itself is completely sincere. It’s about being good to people even when they’re kind of ridiculous. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJul 26, 2013
It’s the kind of movie that takes you by surprise. By the time it’s done, the honesty of the performances and the depth of character that’s revealed is exhilarating. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyJul 11, 2013
Whether the San Pedro does its magic is of course the big question. Regardless, Silva works his, delivering not exactly the Holy Grail of road movies, but a very mellow summer high. Read full review
70
The New York TimesStephen HoldenJul 11, 2013
Sebastián Silva is extremely perceptive about body language, and the characters’ physical presences are as revealing as their words. The performances give you an almost uncomfortable sense of proximity. Read full review
70
The DissolveScott TobiasJul 11, 2013
Even with shaggy, semi-improvised projects like Crystal Fairy, there’s a need for some kind of conclusion, and Silva devises one that’s simultaneously terribly contrived and by far the most powerful scene in the movie. Read full review
67
IndieWireEric KohnApr 9, 2013
Crystal Fairy has little to say beyond Cera's capacity to transform into an amazingly uncomfortable screen presence, something we already knew. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Geoff PevereJul 25, 2013
As Jamie, an American drug tourist desperately seeking a hallucinogenic cactus, Michael Cera pours kerosene on his wet blanket slacker persona. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesBill StametsJul 19, 2013
Chilean writer-director Sebastian Silva re-creates a youthful road trip with a head trip at the end in Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus, more character sketch than psychedelic sojourn. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineJesse CataldoJun 28, 2013
There's so much baggage involved in the kind of dilettantish games Jamie and Crystal are playing that it's a shame that the film never fully engages with these enticing issues. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfJul 9, 2013
Working from autobiographical material, Sebastián Silva does wonders with these two dedicated performances — the ice king and the earth goddess, both of them neurotically detached from their sunny surroundings. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyApr 9, 2013
Watching a bunch of people take a drug trip is seldom either entertaining or edifying, but Chilean director Sebastian Silva manages to make it at least tolerably amusing. Read full review
60
The GuardianJeremy KayApr 9, 2013
Crystal Fairy is an acid trip where the frequent bonhomie is doused by sobering introspection. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleWalter AddiegoJul 25, 2013
There's some amusement in watching Michael Cera play an unalloyed jerk, but in the main this trifling film shuffles by with a few low-key jokes and observations, building to an abrupt moment of seriousness. Read full review
12
New York PostKyle SmithJul 11, 2013
Anything can happen when Michael Cera wanders around Chile without a script on a mission to get high on mescaline. Or, in the case of Crystal Fairy, nothing could happen, too. Read full review
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