‘Fairyland’ Revisits the Joys and Tragedies of ’70s and ’80s San Francisco

A quiet beauty permeates almost every moment of the San Francisco-based new movie Fairyland.

Andrew Durham’s adaptation of Alysia Abbott’s 2013 memoir manages to thoughtfully honor the source material without getting bogged down by its scope. Durham’s movie carries a reverential tone throughout — for Alysia, for the city, and for those who endured the AIDS crisis throughout the 1980s and ’90s. It also bears mentioning that, by its end — even if you’ve read the book; even if you know what’s coming — Fairyland will emotionally dismantle you.

The movie begins with 5-year-old Alysia (Nessa Dougherty) learning of her mother’s sudden death by car accident. In short order, her sensitive scruff-bag dad Steve (Scoot McNairy) moves them to San Francisco, in a shared Haight-Ashbury apartment. Thank