Y’know, after how the last review turned out… I need
something light. Something simple. Something to pick me up from this unexpected
haze of self-loathing I’ve found myself in. So how about a film version of a
popular Funny Or Die web series?
Well, technically, it’s a mockumentary-cum-road-trip-movie
about a fictionalised Zach Galifianakis, the host of the titular show who,
after a freak case of ‘our studio got flooded to shit’, goes cross-country to
track down celebrities to give his boss Will Ferrell enough episodes to save
his show. Anyone familiar with the show already, which hopefully is most of you
as it’s a pretty entertaining deconstruction of ‘Inside The Actor’s
Studio’-type shows, should know what to expect here: A lot of weaponised cringe
comedy built on the reactions of the celebrity guests to whatever fresh hell
Zach says at any given moment.
Said fresh hell is quite funny, even with my current
need for levity in mind, and it helps that everyone here, from the actors to
the interviewees, are in good comedic shape. Zach expands his web show persona
into a great example of the old ‘maximum confidence, minimum competence’ style
of comedy, believing himself to be a lot better as a talk-show host than he
actually is. Will Ferrell as his boss shows him in better form than he’s been
in a long while, taking the ‘conceited boss’ angle so far that he leaps into
Shakespearean soliloquising opposite Zach. After so many Daddy’s Home
movies, this is a welcome sight.
As are the interview guests, who give the film a much-needed
dose of variety for a loose connection of interview clips. Some of them run
with the condescension Zach offers, like Keanu Reeves and Brie Larson, some
outright corpse on-screen, like Jon Hamm, and some outright dodge the silliness
to try and talk sense, like Tessa Thompson. It even reaches a level of bizarre
meta on top of meta when David Letterman shows up, as he not only makes for the
best guest of the entire film, his knowing smirk at the idea that being a TV
show host will make Zach happier adds a weird dash of character to the
proceedings.
It basically functions like a Larry Charles-ification of the
show, managing to take what made the original clips work and bulking it up just
enough with ad-libbing and just plain weirdness (pretty sure most of this
film’s budget was spent solely on the flooding scene, and money well spent far
as I’m concerned) so that it operates on the same level of engagement. Knowing
how many U.S. TV spin-off movies have failed to make that work, up to and
including a whole slew of SNL one-liners mutated into full features, Zach and
writer/director Scott Aukerman make it look downright easy. Whether that’s down
to the strength of their own film craft or just how funny Between Two Ferns is
already remains to be seen, but otherwise, it makes for quite entertaining
viewing.
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