Review of Everything Must Go (2011) by Dominic S — 04 Nov 2011

A very good directorial debut and an OHMYGOD good performance from Will Ferrell here he is not just going his usual (though usually fun) man-child-adolescent shtick. Like Stranger Than Fiction, here's a full flesh-and-blood character, and in fact I may prefer this in performance and film to STF.

This is an intense drama that has one or two moments of comedy - one of which with Stephen Root kinda comes out of nowhere and, while funny, is just bizarre and a little out of place - and it fits in very well with this year's better independent cinema.

It's low-key, tragic, and lead by an actor who shows he's perhaps *more* fearless in drama than he is in comedy. Only major downside in the story is that it all of a sudden goes from no real sales going on on that lawn to a whole boom in one day, so it rushes an arc that didn't need to be rushed like that, especially as it comes after a particularly intense scene.

But it really goes to some unexpected places for what the protagonist goes through, and the filmmaker doesn't shy away from taking him where he needs to go (also inspired by Raymond Carver's short story, which, as one might remember from 'Short Cuts', is the kind of writer that gives generously to stories of people in eccentric disarray).

If you're expecting something goofy from the trailer, you've been fooled once again. If you go in taking in that image as being as catastrophic as it might seem - clothes all across the road, a man looking lost, almost in his own self-made apocalypse - then you'll get something rewarding.

Certainly for those who want to see Ferrell stretch his arms it's one of the pleasantries of the year; maybe not 'Oscar' worthy, but certainly for one of those Independent Spirit Awards for sure.