Crystal Fairy y el Cactus Mágico 2013

Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture: A perplexing movie that does certain things so well you can mostly forgive it for the things it doesn't. Mostly. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: [A] small, lovely road movie ... Read more

John Hartl, Seattle Times: The clash of cultures is harrowing and sometimes hilarious. Read more

A.A. Dowd, AV Club: The film gains a ramshackle quality that's difficult to resist. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Writer and director Sebastian Silva based his film on his own experiences but allows his actors so much space and time that you feel as if you could be watching home movies. Read more

Peter Keough, Boston Globe: [Cera] has transformed himself from one of the most irritating actors of his generation to one of the best. Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: Silva based the story on a personal experience from his early 20s, which he realizes with vivid detail and wry, humane observation; the humor is sweet and lingers in the memory. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: A film that's funny, touching and startlingly unique. Read more

Jordan Hoffman, Film.com: An unusually insightful look at self-imposed false identities and group dynamics Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: Scenic, short and slight, the film manages to avoid the tendency to make these sort of big-screen excursions more tedious than actual road trips. Read more

Ryan Kearney, The New Republic: Jamie and Crystal Fairy, though slightly exaggerated for comic effect, are still truer representations of gringo backpackers than I've ever seen on film. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: "Crystal Fairy" isn't going to be the mind-expanding movie buzz that blows your mind, but in its laconic, trippy way it gets under the skin. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: On paper, this all sounds like a nightmare for any sober viewer. But Silva keeps things on the right path, deftly digging into overlooked corners of the American psyche. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: We already knew that jerks aren't necessarily interesting. Nor is watching footage of other people doing drugs. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Shot on the fly, while Silva, Cera & Co. were waiting to make another movie, Crystal Fairy ends up on a beach, and ends up resonating with a pesky charm. Read more

Christy Lemire, RogerEbert.com: The ending sneaks up on you with a surprising bit of emotional catharsis, thanks largely to a brave, complex performance from former child star Gaby Hoffmann. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: [This] trippy comic odyssey may not be for everyone. But Crystal Fairy gives off fumes that deliver a indisputable high. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: This is a road-trip comedy and a drug-trip comedy, but one that refuses easy cliches and whose ultimate intentions are a lot more sober and mysterious than that sounds. Read more

Walter V. Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle: Director Sebastian Silva seems to be whispering that we shouldn't be taken in by the movie's casual, spontaneous feel, that deep matters are afoot. I'm not sold. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: The movie is a little Mobius strip of laughter and pain. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Based on a true story, using improvised dialogue and a handheld camera, "Crystal Fairy" feels authentic. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Globe and Mail: Consistently funny and fascinating. Read more

Jason Anderson, Toronto Star: While the pleasures of Silva's trippy road-trip movie are mostly minor, it still does something major by eliciting Cera's boldest performance to date. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: The plot, slender though it is, takes them to a beach where they plan to boil a stolen cactus and get high on its famed hallucinogenic properties. So why do we feel the strictures of Indiewood cuteness kick in before the drugs? Read more

Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice: Every clear-eyed insight into why pushy people insist on pushing is matched by loose ensemble humor and lyric reveries ... Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: Part drug comedy, part psychological drama, the movie is slight, but only superficially so. Read more