You most likely don't know this, but in Canada we can just walk into a store, and buy the cactus already dried, and ready to use, and it costs very little. These characters are mostly jerks, and for the most part it is really hard to root for them on this quest, even if I have been on several similar. This movie has no magic, but there is a long drive, and a lot talking and trying to get high. Michael Cera's Jamie is a winy troubled little jerk, and Gaby Hoffmann as the Chrystal Fairy herself is just a complete flake, but that is what they are supposed to be so as far as the acting in this movie it is all really good, it is just hard to watch good acting no matter how good when you are watching such unacceptable people. I really did not Enjoy this movie, there are parts that deserve praise, but it was just such torture watching these characters that I do not recommend this unless you just love art films, and have your own Cactus questing memories you want to relive.

This DVD was on Fast Reads because other users of the library are queued up to read it. I am quite puzzled why. This is a story about how four boys and a girl steal a chunk of psychedelic cactus and go to the beach. Nothing happens. They don't even have soulful conversation. They tease that some group sex might happen, but it never materialises. The sexiest thing that happens is finding some naughty photos. (In this dull movie, that might count as a spoiler). The sound is what you might expect from a surveillance bug. The lighting is often over or under exposed. I don't know why they made this movie. Even the settings are barren and dusty. I kept wanting to give up on the movie, but I soldiered on, hoping it would eventually do something of interest. The girl wanders around naked a lot. By movie standards of beauty, she should not do that. The boys keep their swim trunks on.

Michael Cera goes a long way toward changing his lovable doofus image in this road trip movie with a laid back and ultimately rather sweet vibe.Cera plays an obnoxious American vacationing in Chile who's trying to chase down a special kind of cactus that has mind-altering capabilities when the juice is distilled and drunk. Along for the ride are three native Chilean brothers and another American, a hippie-dippie girl named Crystal Fairy. The Chileans are quiet, polite and tolerant while the Americans are both unpleasant, Cera because he's a jerk and Crystal Fairy because she tries too hard. If this had stayed yet another Americans-behaving-badly movie I wouldn't have liked it. But it goes a very different, and welcome, direction, as the group's time together causes defenses to be relaxed and vulnerabilities to emerge."Crystal Fairy" does a great job of capturing that unique dynamic that evolves when a random assortment of people spend a lot of time together on a road trip. The characters created by Cera and Gaby Hoffman (who plays Crystal Fairy) certainly aren't pleasant to spend time with for much of the film's running time, but they're so like people I've actually known that it's fascinating to watch their performances and how thoroughly they can create characters that feel so authentic.I was already won over by the film's casual, relaxed atmosphere by the time the last few scenes came around, and then, after a late-act revelation and the sensitive way in which the film handles it, decided that I had sort of fallen in love with it.Grade: A

Childish drawings. Public nakedness. Horrific gang-bang memories. A whole foods diet. An urge to Earth Mother everyone. Disrespect for private property. Yo-yo emotional outbursts. Unforgettable body odor. Lots of big words. Casual nudity before strange men. A constant need to be bailed out of jams. Cultural insensitivity. A hankering to scrapbook. Plenty of sunburns. Psychobabble. Relying on the kindness of strangers. The need to scold. A yen to dominate men. Conflict with female folk. Rampant insecurities. No serious effort to become an S.I. swimsuit model. An impractical approach to life. Gathering no moss. Taking lots of notes. Not stepping in the same river twice. No sense of direction. Mooching. Constantly being holier than thou. Willing to strap it on. That's just the attributes of the "Crystal Fairy" (played in CRYSTAL FAIRY & THE MAGIC CACTUS AND 2012 by Gabby Hoffman). How could co-star Michael Cera dump JUNO for HER?!