This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Grade: One-and-one-half stars (out of four)The experience of watching "Crystal Fairy," screening in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition, is what it feels like to have someone tell you a long story about something that isn't that interesting in the fist place. Director and screenwriter Sebastian Silva revealed in the Q-and-A after the film that the film shoot took 12 days and was largely improvised, and the result is what you would expect: an unfocused, self-indulgent film that feels much longer than than its running time of 100 minutes. While the three Silva brothers are charming and Gaby Hoffmann (as the title character) gives a revealing (in more ways than one), stand-out performance, the story about a quintet of young people traveling to the coast in Chile to try out mescaline (based on what Silva said happened to him about two decades ago) never really goes anywhere. The majority of the last half of the film is spent watching these characters a they trip out after drinking the mescaline, and it is like watching a video game that someone else is playing: they are apparently having fun, but you're bored stiff.— David Burger