By Chuck Graham, TucsonStage.com
If you sort of remember the ’70s, you’ll find plenty of nostalgic moments in “Crystal Fairy.”
This semi-autobiographical story now playing at the Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway Blvd., is from Chilean writer/director Sebastian Silva. His three brothers take the roles of friends joined by Jamie (Michael Cera) and an airy young woman who calls herself Crystal Fairy (Gaby Hoffmann) – the sort known these days as a hippie chick.
True to the freeform lifestyle, all five meet at a raucous house party in an unnamed Chilean city, then get swept up in deciding to seek out a San Pedro cactus, known for its potent hallucinogenic powers. The director’s brothers –Juan Andres, Jose Miguel and Agustin – play guys who are fairly stable and extremely patient fellows able to embrace the eccentric actions of these two crazy Americans, Jamie and Crystal Fairy.
Jamie is Cera in hyperactive mode, eager to experience a vigorous new high and at the same time being afraid of everything around him.
Hoffmann creates the quintessential hippie chick filled with the spirit of mystical power and spontaneous expression. She’s either staring off into space or throwing herself into dance poses that, from time to time, find clothes to be an encumbrance.
The adventure begins as a road movie as the merry band searches in a little town for the San Pedro cactus, which seems to be common enough in people’s front yards. The problem is, none of the property owners want to share their San Pedro with these odd strangers.
Resorting to theft, Cera secretly hacks off a sizeable arm of San Pedro and they haul it many miles away to an isolated beach. At this point, the road movie becomes an isolated beach movie.
Pitching their tents, building a fire and boiling the cactus provide the framework for many shifts in personality, as Jamie becomes more determined to drink this brew and Crystal Fairy wants to commune with the silent faces of nearby mountain ridges.
Misunderstandings combine with philosophical insights to provide a satisfactory resolution, at least for the moment, to life’s never-ending quest for more life.
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