Crystal Fairy

In a season in which women have been practically invisible at the megaplex, director Sebastián Silva and Gaby Hoffmann have created a female character in stoner comedy Crystal Fairy who is as obnoxious as her male counterparts. And they don’t stop at a one-dimensional caricature; Crystal is a would-be flower child, born more than a few decades too late, traveling through Chile.

At a party, Crystal meets Jamie (Michael Cera), who gives her his number before leaving on a road trip with his roommate, Champa (Silva’s brother, Juan Andrés Silva), and his brothers to find a mescaline-containing San Pedro cactus. Plans change when Crystal calls.

Cera and Hoffmann refine their characters’ obnoxiousness to a perfect pitch. His main conversational topics are drugs and how much he dislikes her. She’s not so self-absorbed to realize that she’s with guys who barely tolerate her. But she doesn’t care.

Silva sees subtleties in these two characters’ behavior that a more snide film might overlook. They may be assholes, but they’re capable of kind gestures that make Crystal Fairy a diverting ride. It’s probably good that they won’t be spending more time together, but their trip turns out not to be a waste.