Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Movie Review: Everything Must Go (2010)

Everything Must Go has that melancholy indie dramedy buzz thing going on. Based on a short story by Raymond Carver and starring the Stranger Than Fiction version of Will Ferrell, a poster that owes a lot to Dan In Real Life and a director, Dan Rush, stepping out of commercials for the first time.

What appealed to me the most was seeing Ferrell in a similar part to the one I loved in Stranger Than Fiction, he was so good in that and much like Jim Carrey massively underused in more serious roles. There's an underlying sadness that comedians seem to be able to pull off in certain roles so much better than other actors.


Nick is a recovering alcoholic who falls off the wagon the day he loses his job, his wife and his home. He spends the rest of the movie pretty much on his front lawn trying to sell his things. It's a movie, so there's a sense of catharsis at the end, but the journey is what counts.

The movie is merely OK, a simple enough story that's been told a thousand different ways but this time it doesn't leave you reaching for the vomit bag due to a trite ending or groaning at the paint by numbers emotional responses from the characters. Subtle is not a word usually used when discussing the work of Will Ferrell but yes this movie owes a large amount of its quality to a careful underplaying of the situation from the director and a performance from Ferrell that mixes his everyman charm and humour with a nice portrait of the breaking-apart middle aged man. If only Charlie Sheen behaved this way instead of acting like the very worst Will Ferrell character on its very worst day.


Other than a Will Ferrell performance of unheard of subtlety there's the character of Kenny, (impressively played by Notorious B.I.G. Jr.) a lonely kid who befriends the flailing Nick and an AA sponsor/best friend who helps him along the way. Both characters types are cliched staples of the genre, just the mention of them fills your mind with preconceived notions of what to expect from them. Kenny is no Thurman Merman from Bad Santa, he doesn't tug at Nick's better side and his sponsor doesn't shout and weep and demand things until Nick eventually pulls through. Robin Williams doesn't turn up to repeat "it's not your fault" and Tom Cruise isn't gonna demand that he lets him "help me, help you."



This could easily have been pitched at a very different tone, casting somebody like Philip Seymour Hoffman for example you could easily see this movie becoming dark and depressing with very little hope on the horizon, whilst asking Ferrell to play to his usual strengths (if you can call them that) would have been a slapsticky disaster of overacting. Dan Rush has achieved some small success with that if nothing else.

Other things of note: Laura Dern was alright enough as her minor character of "the ex high school crush" (yes another stereotypical choice for a character in this kind of movie,) who has a fun Brad Pitt anecdote, the music choice felt a little blah, standard instrumental stuff, nothing special but at least it wasn't a constant stream of hipster indie folk stuff like other indie dramedies recently and my favourite piece of dialogue: "black people can't play soccer," "entire continents of black people play soccer, ever heard of Pele?"


I definitely recommend seeing this, however I can't help but think that it has no target demographic. Those of you who love the blockbusters are probably going to find this a little too slow moving and not containing enough plot whilst those indie film junkies among us aren't going to love it either as it's a little too safe. Actually it feels like a solid TV movie or something that will probably get forgotten about very quickly after the novelty/pleasure of seeing Will Ferrell allowed to act wears off.

Seen it? Planning to? Desperate for more Ferrell? Prefer to see him in Zoolander 2? Leave some blah below.

14 comments:

  1. Interesting. I have heard of it and thought about watching it but I generally find Ferrall annoying. He gets too much for me at times. This seems more up my street than I thought it was going to be!!

    Thanks Toby McTobsta

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  2. SL - i can't believe scheduler has done this to me again! i set it to post in the morning so i could sleep in but it's posted 18 hours early. grr.

    Ferrell is definitely the best thing about this movie. it's pretty impressive. i'm still not guaranteeing you'll like it. but you probably will.

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  3. I'm surprised, I have had an aversion towards Will Ferrel from what I've seen of him. I guess it's like Adam Sandler in Punch Drunk Love; if not doing dumb comedies they can be really good.

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  4. Melancholy indie dramady buzz? Sign me up! This looks right up my alley. I personally love STRANGER THAN FICTION too, but it is more for Emma Thompson's performance than Will Ferrell's.

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  5. I actually have this movie coming to me this week from Netflix. I've been curious about it even though I'm generally not a Ferrell fan. I did like him in Stranger than Fiction and the trailer reminds me a bit of his performance in there. Glad you enjoyed it, Toby.

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  6. vik - absolutely. i always forget about PDL, my second favourite PTA movie too. Sandler was actually watchable in it. Restraint is the key word at the moment.

    tyler - i hope you like it. or at least don't hate it! i've already posted about how much i love emma thompson (in real life too) so you know i feel the same way about STRANGER THAN FICTION but i did think Ferrell was a great surprise in it.

    ruth - i hope there weren't any spoilers to ruin it for you ruth. let me know how you get on with your netflix disc.

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  7. A film described as "safe" is perhaps one to be wary of. I hate Ferrell's outlandish comedies, while his turn in Stranger Than Fiction was excellent ("restraint" indeed, such a perfect word for that film) so I approach any film he's in with a level of caution. Good to hear this is not a bad film by any stretch, but I guess it's disappointing to hear it's not that terrific either. Will probably give it a shot on BluRay on a cheap day.

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  8. rodney - good to see you again. i think you've got the right idea. see it, but don't pay more that bare minimum for it.

    although i had this almost overwhelming urge to watch it again last night. i guess it's just kind of sitting there in my mind demanding more attention. i may not give in to it though.

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  9. Totally agree with your assessment. Pleasant enough movie with solid performances all-around but overall, it has that indie "life vignette" quality that makes it a bit bland and forgettable.

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  10. castor - i want to say "at least it was hated" but i'm not sure if that's a good thing or not in this case.

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  11. Nice review, man. I thought this movie was pretty good, and it was great to see Will Ferrell in a dramatic role again. Hopefully he takes on more roles similar to this in the future.

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  12. ERIC - thank you for the kind words. I share your hopes for Ferrell's career. Fingers crossed he's reading this.

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  13. Stranger than Fiction is easily my favorite Will Ferrell movie, but I have seen many comments about Everything Must Go saying it's no Stranger than Fiction. I hadn't been planning on seeing it. From the review and the comments I'm not sure if my interest in it has picked up or not.

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  14. CHIP - the comments are most definitely correct, it is no Stranger Than Fiction but as it's a CARVER short story there is something to be said for it's portrait of American suburbia. I can't recommend rushing out and seeing it but it's certainly better than a lot of movies i watch. Whether that says more about the movies i inevitably end up watching than the quality of this film i don't know.

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