Stars tune in and go tripping
Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics (18+, 85 minutes) Directed by Donick Cary Reviewed by Graeme Tuckett ★★★1⁄2
One day, someone will make a comprehensive, exhaustive and authoritative documentary on psychotropic and hallucinogenic drugs and their role in human history.
It will be heavy on the science of what these drugs do and of what they actually do to our brains. Or, possibly someone already has made that film and I just don’t know about it. Please let me know.
I’ve seen some great films about the discovery and effects of LSD – The Substance and The Sunshine Makers are both well worth a look – but not one that covers all the naturally occurring hallucinogens as well.
And, Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics isn’t that film either. There’s not much science here and certainly no dispassionate examination of cause and effect.
But, it is still a pretty good watch, with a couple of interesting points to make and a swathe of interviewees so sweetly wide-eyed and self-deprecating about their drug taking that it’s all too easy to forget they are all on camera, admitting to recreational drug use that, in the US at least, could have put them in prison for years.
There’s exceptions, of course. Anyone who’s seen friends and relatives fall into meth addiction knows this. But mostly, anyone who knows what they’re talking about will argue that the criminalisation of drug use causes more harm than the drug itself.
And I reckon, behind the cheery interviews, the truly funny publichealth-warning recreations and the occasional narration (Parks and Recreation’s Nick Offerman steps in), maybe that’s the whole point: If Sting, Ben Stiller, Sarah Silverman, Carrie Fisher and co can all have funny, illuminating and occasionally insightful stories of the times they went a trippin’, then where’s the harm? Although, including Anthony Bourdain in the lineup might weaken the argument a little.
Don’t come to Have a Good Trip looking for answers, or even much information about psychedelics. But it is a friendly, entertaining and likeably brief collection of yarns. If that is what director Donick Cary intended, then its work here is done.
Have a Good Trip is streaming now on Netflix.