Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics’ on Netflix, a Documentary in Which Celebs Talk About That One Time They Got Soooooo Wasted

New Netflix movie Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics is, like, so totally high right now, it just can’t believe it. Director Donick Cary traveled to infinity and into the inner and outer mind, man, but mostly around the Los Angeles area to rap with celebs and the occasional scientist and at least one pseudoscientist about their experiences tripping testicles once, or maybe 200 times, or whatever. The result is this 85-minute hodgepodge of a documentary that looks dumb, or looks fun, or might just be dumb fun.

HAVE A GOOD TRIP: ADVENTURES IN PSYCHEDELICS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Here’s some old footage of a guy saying that LSD has an effect on everyone, especially that one elephant that died during an experiment. Now here’s Nick Offerman dressed in a lab coat and horn-rimmed glasses, giving the film’s thesis statement: “Don’t get me wrong — drugs can be dangerous. But they can also be hilarious.” Now here’s a sequence comprised of recognizable faces quick-quipping about psychedelic drugs: Sting, A$AP Rocky, Rosie Perez, Reggie Watts, Natasha Lyonne, Carrie Fisher, David Cross, the drummer for the Grateful Dead (no not that one, the other one), the guy who plays the asshole on Fleabag, Anthony Bourdain, etc. Now check out this animated sequence, which is set to some Freedom Rock, and is FARRRRRRRRR OUT!

Now here’s Deepak Chopra spewing his usual drivel. Now here’s Sting telling a story about how he took peyote once, and the grass talked to him and then he helped a cow give birth. Now here’s Bourdain sharing his teenage Hunter S. Thompson-esque story. Now here’s Adam Scott and Riki Lindhome in a scratchy faux-VHS parody of an Afterschool Special histrionically preaching the dangers of psychedelic drugs. Now here’s a researcher and psychologist named Charles Grob who actually says interesting things about how psychedelics can potentially treat mental health conditions, and it’s like totally legit. Now here’s Carrie Fisher being her usual explosively charismatic and effortlessly funny self as she talks about her intimate and longstanding relationship with acid.

Wait, aren’t some of these people dead now? This movie must’ve been in the works for a while. OK, now here’s a Beastie Boy, Marc Maron, Paul Scheer, Rosie Perez and the guy from The Dead again, and I think one of them says not to look in the mirror when you’re tripping, and another says you should look in the mirror while you’re tripping. Now here’s Ben Stiller talking about the one time he took acid and called his dad, Jerry Stiller, who was on the set of The Love Boat at the time, in the middle of his trip and OH MY GOD I WATCHED THIS ON THE SAME MORNING I FOUND OUT JERRY STILLER PASSED AWAY. THIS CAN’T BE A COINCIDENCE. WHERE’S DEEPAK CHOPRA TO EXPLAIN THE “QUANTUM” SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS? Oh and here’s the end credits, with some TV news clips addressing how psychedelics can potentially treat mental health conditions, and it’s like totally legit!

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: The movie features neo-throwback animation along the lines of Yellow Submarine or the stranger fringes of Ralph Bakshi’s work.

Performance Worth Watching: “I would do these things and forget that I looked like someone named Princess Leia.”

Memorable Dialogue: “The real world is a radically ambiguous and ceaselessly flowing quantum soup.” — Deepak Chopra, who needs to shut the hell up

Sex and Skin: None

Our Take: Tell me, what other movie features A$AP Rocky telling a story about how a rainbow once shot out of his schwantz, or a sequence dedicated to the phenomenon where astronomically stoned people tend to stare at their hand for hours at a time? This is bold new territory, my friends, just truly groundbreaking stuff.

Cary’s goal with Have a Good Trip is modest: Take a lightweight meander through the subject matter, and hopefully generate a few laughs. Although the result is mildly amusing, it emanates the distinctive odor of a project that’s funnier for the participants than the viewers. The Afterschool Special bit is a recurring gag that mostly works; animated segments illustrating celebrities’ trips occasionally work; the Offerman bit doesn’t really work; the Bourdain and Perez bits the sequence in which Nick Kroll and Rob Corddry play each other in their respective drug-trip reenactments works better than it should. The scientific commentary offers a sprinkling of rationality to the proceedings, but putting the blather of a snake-oil conman like Chopra in the movie undermines Cary’s half-assed argument for the medical legitimacy of psychedelics.

Maybe criticizing a humorous documentary about taking drugs for being unfocused completely misses the point, but the truth is undeniable — this humorous documentary about taking drugs is unfocused. In an era rife with hard-hitting documentaries, this is one of the least hard-hitting documentaries. At least it has a digestible runtime, lest it feel interminable; at least it doesn’t overemphasize Sting’s capacity for deep thought, lest it become insufferable.

Our Call: SKIP IT. Is the Carrie Fisher sequence on YouTube somewhere? Just watch that part.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Stream Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics on Netflix