Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics (2020)
Story overview
This documentary-comedy explores psychedelic experiences through celebrity interviews, animated sequences, and reenactments. It blends humor with educational content about the history and effects of psychedelics, presenting personal stories in a lighthearted yet informative manner.
Parent Guide
This documentary-comedy about psychedelic experiences is strictly for mature audiences due to its explicit drug-related content, strong language, and adult humor. Not suitable for children or young teens.
Content breakdown
No physical violence, but some animated sequences depict surreal, potentially disorienting scenarios that could be unsettling. Some reenactments show characters in altered states that might imply psychological peril.
The film includes animated and live-action depictions of psychedelic trips that can be visually intense, bizarre, or disturbing. Some sequences might be frightening due to their surreal nature and portrayal of altered consciousness.
Frequent strong language including f-words, s-words, and other profanity throughout celebrity interviews and narration.
Some sexual references and innuendo in conversations about psychedelic experiences. No nudity or explicit sexual content.
The entire film focuses on psychedelic drug use. Multiple depictions of characters using LSD, psilocybin mushrooms, and other psychedelics. Detailed discussions of drug experiences, effects, and drug culture. This is the central theme of the documentary.
The film balances comedic elements with serious discussions about altered states of consciousness. Some segments might be emotionally intense as celebrities share personal, sometimes challenging psychedelic experiences.
Parent tips
This film contains mature themes about drug use, strong language, and adult humor. It's rated TV-MA for a reason. Watch it first yourself to determine if it's appropriate for your teen. Be prepared to discuss the realities of drug use versus the comedic portrayal.
Parent chat guide
Parent follow-up questions
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- What did you learn about psychedelics from this documentary?
- How did the animations affect how you viewed the drug experiences?
- Do you think the movie made drug use seem fun or dangerous? Why?
- What questions do you have about drugs after watching this?
🎭 Story Kernel
The film's core isn't about advocating for psychedelics, but exploring how these experiences reveal fundamental human truths about perception, ego dissolution, and connection. It dismantles the 'just a drug' narrative by presenting psychedelics as catalysts for confronting fear, mortality, and the constructed nature of reality. The driving force for the interviewees is a shared search for meaning—whether it's Sting seeking spiritual connection, Carrie Fisher grappling with mental health, or Nick Offerman finding absurdist humor in cosmic terror. The movie argues that the trip is a mirror, forcing an unfiltered look at the self and the universe, with outcomes ranging from profound healing to hilarious confusion.
🎬 Visual Aesthetics
The visual language masterfully mirrors the psychedelic experience. Live-action interviews are grounded and intimate, using close-ups to capture raw, vulnerable recollections. These sharply contrast with wildly animated reenactments that employ fluid, morphing 2D and 3D animation, saturated color palettes, and surreal, non-linear imagery to visualize the ineffable. The documentary cleverly uses these animated segments not just for comedy, but as a direct translation of subjective perception—trees breathing, time distorting, entities communicating. The aesthetic shifts constantly, from the crisp realism of the talking heads to trippy, educational cartoon segments, creating a cinematic experience that feels both instructional and immersive.
🔍 Details & Easter Eggs
💡 Behind the Scenes
Director Donick Cary drew from his experience writing for 'The Simpsons' and 'Late Night with David Letterman,' blending comedy writing with documentary pacing. The film features an eclectic mix of interviewees sourced through personal connections and shared interest in the subject, including comedians, musicians, and scientists like Dr. Deepak Chopra. The distinctive animation was created by multiple artists and studios, each bringing a different style to match the unique tone of each celebrity's story, requiring close collaboration to ensure the visuals accurately reflected the personal, often bizarre, nature of the recounted trips.
Where to watch
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- Netflix
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Trailer
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