High Country: Take a psychedelic adventure in Netflix’s new star-studded documentary

“I don’t think psychedelics are the answers to the world’s problems,” Sting shares in the trailer for the new Netflix documentary Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics. “But they could be a start.”

The film, out on May 11, dives into the history of psychedelics and celebrates their cultural impact while pondering hallucinogens’ powerful role in treating mental health. A star-studded cast of actors, comedians and musicians includes Ad-Rock, Anthony Bourdain, Bill Kruetzmann, Natasha Lyonne and Sarah Silverman recounting their own personal experiences with acid, mushrooms, peyote and ayahuasca. Nick Offerman narrates, playing a mad scientist, while many of the celebrity trips are reenacted in comedic scripted scenes with trippy animation scattered throughout. 

Made over the course of a decade by Emmy winner Donick Cary, whose credits include Late Night with David Letterman, The Simpsons and Parks and Recreation, the idea for his debut documentary was conceived in his hometown of Nantucket Island following a conversation with Ben Stiller and Fisher Stevens at the 2009 Nantucket Film Festival. Slated to premiere at SXSW in March, Netflix Originals has brought it straight to streaming following the film festival’s coronavirus cancellation.

Ahead of the documentary’s release, here are a few more quotes from the film’s high jinks:

“What’s reality? The answer is there’s no such thing. We are on a trip all of the time. Right now we are on a trip, right? Life is a trip.” —Deepak Chopra 

“Did it make me smarter? Did I become enlightened? I don’t know. But I think it enabled me early on to imagine another point of view…another perspective. I think it made me a better person both creatively and every other way. I’d rather be a person who’s had that in their past than somebody who missed it.” —Anthony Bourdain

“The first time my dad [Timothy Leary] did psilocybin in Mexico, his famous quote from the experience was ‘I learned more on my four hours on mushrooms than I did in my previous 20 years in psychology.’” —Zach Leary

“I thought…’I’ll never do that again.’ But I did. A few more times.” —Sarah Silverman

“I just always had this question…there’s gotta be more…there’s gotta be more. And then when took acid, I’m like oh, you’re right…there’s a lot more. It’s a tremendous asset when you learn about it and not have our government stop us from learning…same with marijuana. They take away all of the possible discovery of all of the medicine it could be.” —Bill Kreutzmann

“You should not take it cavalierly. I don’t know if you should take it.” —Carrie Fisher

“These compounds when utilized under optimal conditions seem to have a rather remarkable facility for catalyzing spiritual-level experiences, which by their very nature may have the potential to be transformative.” —Dr. Charles Grob

“in retrospect, I didn’t realize how much it [LSD] was going to change my life because it really changed my life for a long time.” —Ben Stiller

Katie Shapiro can be reached at katie@katieshapiromedia.com and followed on Twitter @bykatieshapiro.