Magic Magic

When Sartre said that hell is other people, he may well have been returning from a weekend with an obnoxiously loud and sexually aggressive Michael Cera. Cinema’s go-to nice boy has come over all creepy, and steals the show in Sebastian Silva’s odd, interesting exploration of group dynamics and psychological madness.

As the attention-seeking and over-sexed Brink, Cera becomes the tormentor of Juno Temple’s Alicia, an awkward young woman joining her cousin (Emily Browning) on a trip through Chile. When Browning abandons her for a few days, Alicia’s social neuroses are pushed to breaking point by her unwilling babysitters: the inappropriate Brink, Browning’s hypnotism-obsessed boyfriend Agustin, and his task-master sister (Catalina Sandino Moreno). Sleep-deprived and unnerved by Brink’s advances, Alicia begins to lose her grip on reality.

The blend of psychological horror and behavioural comedy could have been a disaster – think The Shining meets The Sure Thing. But Silva (The Maid, Crystal Fairy) masterfully infects the funny and everyday with a sinister energy. Gratuitous animal cruelty and taunting peers combine to form a brilliantly soundscaped cacophony of unease in Alicia’s mind, which Silva slowly builds on.

But sadly, what’s he’s building seems to be a ladder to nowhere. Though dream-like visions try to escalate the sense of ambiguity and confusion, they further distance the audience from the rather unsympathetic Alicia, while the third act is a shark-jumping twist that undermines the realistic social observations.

An initially impressive trick that’s soon revealed to be all smoke and mirrors.