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Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics

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Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics
Film poster
Directed byDonick Cary
Written byDonick Cary
Produced by
  • Stuart Cornfeld
  • Jeremy Reitz
  • Mike Rosenstein
  • Ben Stiller
  • Jim Ziegler
Cinematography
  • Skyler Rousselet
  • Stash Slionski
Edited byGreg Stees
Production
companies
  • Sunset Rose Pictures
  • Sugarshack 2000 [1]
Distributed byNetflix
Release date
  • May 11, 2020 (2020-05-11)
Running time
85 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics is a 2020 documentary film directed and written by Emmy winning producer, writer, and director Donick Cary and starring Nick Offerman, Sting, ASAP Rocky, and several other a-lister celebs. The documentary revolves around celebrities telling anecdotes about hallucinogenic drug usage.[2][3] It is among the final film appearances of Fred Willard,[citation needed] Anthony Bourdain,[4] and Carrie Fisher.[5]

Pre-Production

In an interview with marijuana-style writer Katie Shapiro, director Cary revealed how the documentary idea came about.[6] The film’s director, Donick Cary, first came up with the idea for the documentary after having a conversation with Ben Stiller and Fisher Stevens at the Nantucket Film Festival back in 2009.[6] Both Carry and Stiller are board members of the Nantucket Film Festival, which Carry explains is a place where people just go to hang out, talk about ideas and watch documentaries. At this festival, while eating together in a lounge, they shared stories about different hallucinogens and the different effects that they produce.[6] During this conversation, Cary explained that he thought it would be a good idea if there was a movie that shared different crazy stories about people’s experiences with drugs.[6] Cary suggested to both Stiller and Fisher that they should all work together to make a documentary. He thought it would be cool to also have a movie where those stories could be reenacted and also include animations.[6] Stiller and Fisher agreed and were down to make this documentary. A few months later, Cary formally pitched the idea for the documentary to Ben Stiller’s team. Cary, however, make is clear that the original goal was just to have people tell some funny stories and then it evolved into a film about educating the public about drugs and having serious conversations about psychedelics. He also reveals that he wondered how he would make a film that seemed somewhat pro-psychedelic but at the same time non-biased and that shows all the sides of drugs and how it relates to people’s lives.

Production

Carry further explains how he got all the celebrities in the film to agree to share their stories and be part of the film.[6] In the interview, he states that he asked everyone he knew to be a part of the film and revealed that “anyone who said yes — roughly 1 in 10! — [they] went and interviewed.”[6] He mentioned that he conducted over a hundred interviews, enough to break down into series or multiple films. He goes as far as to say that with all the footage he gathered he could easily make 30 episodes. Carry also reveals that they interviewed twice as many people as are in the documentary, and hinted at making a Part Two which would include many other interviews with people who weren’t included in the first part of the film. He is hoping that Part Two will include stories by “David Crosby and Patton Oswalt, Whitney Cummings and Ozzy Osbourne to Bootsy Collins, Devo and the Jackass guys” and several more.[6]

The film was financed by his producing partner Mike Rosenstein from Sunset Rose Pictures and from Cary’s own company called Sugarshack 2000.[6] It is unknown how much money was spent on making the film.

Carry revealed that making the documentary was never a full-time job and took his time to make the film.[6] The film took over a decade to make; 11 years to be exact.[6] It is a short film that took a lot of time to make since they had to shoot interviews over the years at the convince of the celebrities’ schedule.[6] Scheduling the interviews were done through an agency called Central Talent Booking.[6] Cary also stated that he got a lot of support and help from Ben Stiller’s company Red Hour and Fisher Stevens’s company.[6]

The movie was filmed in various locations including Carrie Fisher’s Beverly Hills home which she referred to as the “acid house.”[7]  While most of the interviews were filmed at the interviewee’s houses and apartments, other interviews were filmed at such as Sarah Silverman’s were filmed at a park. The re-enactments were also filmed in several locations, one of which took place at a beach.

The music for the film was done by the American indie rock band Yo La Tengo along with music supervisor Kim Huffman Cary.[7]

Subjects

The documentary features interviews with:

Release

It was released on May 11, 2020, on Netflix.[2] Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics was originally set to premiere at the South by Southwest (SXSW) film festival.[7] The film’s director revealed that unfortunately, the SXSW was among the American events that were canceled amid growing fears of the coronavirus pandemic.[7] He revealed that he and the people who helped create the film were so thrilled and excited to showcase their comedic documentary at the SXSW film festival and also expressed their disappointment with the festival’s cancellation by revealing that they “cried and hugged. And then stopped hugging because…you know… pandemic.”[7] Besides his original plan of releasing the film during the film festival, Carry also revealed that they had planned to have a big screening and party along with music playing live by the band Yo La Tengo, Reggie Watts, and more.[7]They were also going to have conversions and pannels with comedy with DJ sets.  Despite the premiere’s cancellation, Carry teamed up with a movie streaming service to release the film on an online platform.[7] Netflix Originals brought the documentary straight to stream on May 11, 2020.[7] The film remained in the top ten for more than a month after its release. Carry hopes that the film makes people laugh and hopes that it can start a bigger conversation regarding mental health as well as the advantages and disadvantages of psychedelics.

When asked about his future plans for film festivities once the stay at home restrictions have been lifted, Carry said that he would love to take the film “coast to coast and beyond...bring along some live comedy, music, and experts in the field to do panel conversations, answer questions…dance? Hug again?”[7]

Reception

The documentary received a ton of reviews and criticism from various critics, including a mix of positive, negative, and mixed reviews. While some appreciate that the film brings awareness to how drugs can possibly be used in the future to treat various medical conditions such as depression and anxiety, others were disappointed with the film’s use of comedic elements. Some claimed that the documentary just wasn’t as good as they expected it would be and also some thought it just wasn’t that funny despite the filmmaker’s attempts to make the documentary funny and entertaining. The movie also received criticism and reviews from notable film critics sites and newspaper sites such as Movie Nation, the AV Club, IndieWire, The Daily Beast, The Hollywood Reporter, IMDB, The New York Times, Forbes, and the Associated Press. On Rotten Tomatoes, the documentary has an approval rating of 58% based on 26 reviews. The website’s critical consensus reads, “Good Trip” aims to entertain, not educate as it presents a star-studded parade of celebrity reminiscences about taking hallucinogenic drugs.[8] In IMDb, the film was 6.8/10 based on 6,418 views. Saying “seemed to focus more on a narrative about drugs being fun, rather than necessarily educating its audience.” [9] On Metacritic, the film received a 44 out of 100 based on 9 critics calling it “a series of revue-style blackout sketches, lengthy digressions, and dead ends.” [10]

References

  1. ^ Have a Good Trip (2020) - IMDb, retrieved 2021-04-26
  2. ^ a b "'Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics': Film Review". Variety. Retrieved 2020-06-16.
  3. ^ "'Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics': Film Review". Decider. Retrieved 2020-06-16.
  4. ^ "Have a Good Trip: celebrities share wild psychedelic stories for Netflix". the Guardian. 2020-05-12. Retrieved 2021-04-17.
  5. ^ Menta, Anna (May 11, 2020). "Carrie Fisher's 'Have a Good Trip' Interview is Hilarious and Bittersweet". Decider. Archived from the original on November 1, 2020. Retrieved August 21, 2020.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Shapiro, Katie. "Netflix And Trip: Take A Psychedelic Adventure In This Star-Studded Documentary". Forbes. Retrieved 2021-04-26.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Carrie Fisher's 'Have a Good Trip' Interview is Hilarious and Bittersweet". Decider. 2020-05-11. Retrieved 2021-04-26.
  8. ^ Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics - Movie Reviews, retrieved 2021-04-27
  9. ^ Have a Good Trip (2020) - IMDb, retrieved 2021-04-27
  10. ^ Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics, retrieved 2021-04-27

External links

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