BEFORE: This is another one of those movies that has a huge cast, so it links to nearly everything. I count at least five actors who were in the "Avengers" movies making cameos in it, for example. Plus the star of "Wonder Woman", people like Jon Hamm and Awkwafina who seem to be in everything these days, so this film could have fit just about anywhere. It almost seems a shame to use it to just connect two films, it feels like it should have been more useful somehow.
Still, whether it's good or not, it's serving a purpose, it's getting me from the lead-out film from those Orson Welles movies to the start of the next leg of the Father's Day marathon - by comparison, it would have felt like more of a waste to just drop this between two films with Matthew McConaughey in them. This is exactly what films with big casts should be used for, to get me out of a linking jam. This may be a mockumentary, but I used a couple of documentaries last year for similar purposes, like "Filmworker" and "Always at the Carlyle", which also had huge casts and enabled me to connect the end of one long chain with the start of another. So even though I was semi-saving this one because it happens to connect two Christmas films on my list, I've moved it up in the plan because it's going to help get me to the right films on Father's Day and then the Fourth of July - a noble purpose indeed.
Keanu Reeves carries over from "River's Edge" to appear as Keanu Reeves today.
THE PLOT: Zach Galifianakis and his oddball crew take a road trip to complete a series of high-profile celebrity interviews.
AFTER: Sometimes it's all about tone where comedy is concerned, and this one's really deadpan most of the time. But that's OK, because I'm still in the middle of Season 4 of "Arrested Development", and the humor is so overblown, so over-the-top that some deadpan humor is really appealing to me now. And that's what Zach Galifianakis brings to the table, I guy who's so out of touch with reality that he doesn't realize how much of a loser he is, or maybe he does but he soldiers on anyway, and then acts more like a diva to cover up his shortcomings.
The premise is that he hosts a talk show that airs on some public access channel in North Carolina, but because the show also airs on Will Ferrell's Funny or Die web-site, Ferrell keeps making his showbiz pals stop by the station if they happen to be in North Carolina, so somehow this nobody in the middle of nowhere finds himself interviewing famous people, even if he's not sure who exactly they are, or how to pronounce their names. The celebrities play themselves, and Galifianakis and Ferrell play fictional versions of themselves, kind of like Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon do in those "Trip" movies. Zach G. ignores his celebrity to play a nobody, and Ferrell goes the other way, and arrives by limo to offer him a deal for his own network talk show, if he can provide 10 more episodes of "Between Two Ferns" and deliver them to L.A. in just two weeks.
The big problem is, there was a big plumbing disaster, pipes in the studio broke while Zach was interviewing some actor named McConaughey, who nearly drowned when the studio filled up with water. Zach's big plan to sound-proof the studio also prevented any water from escaping, you see. So Zach takes a camera man and sound crew on the road with him (umm, plus an additional crew that's conveniently following him around to make a documentary about the show) and they cross the country looking for celebrities (and somehow, conveniently finding them) to make their next 10 episodes, running up large hotel bills and then staying in unorthodox locations once their money runs out.
Look, I could get really nitpicky here and point out that they could have used only one crew instead of two, the same people filming the documentary could have easily filmed the show-within-the-movie, but that wouldn't have been as much fun, and the characters in the crew wouldn't have had such great and awkward interactions. I could point out that there's no way that a single-camera documentary crew could have produced what is clearly a multi-camera low-budget narrative film, and there's also no way the documentary crew could have gotten THOSE shots, like were they riding on the outside of the car in the middle of the night? Of course not. But I don't want to be a real dick here, the movie's funny enough to dispel most of these concerns.
I watch a lot of TV shows that tour the country, looking for "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives", or places that count as "Food Paradise", or feature "Man vs. Food" eating challenges or "Bizarre Foods", and honestly, I'm fascinated by the logistics of it all, just like I'm fascinated by the logistics of bringing a rock band and all their gear to 30 or 40 cities around the country. Like, who plans all that? Clearly somebody with a head for organizing things in an obsessive-compulsive fashion. (Hint, hint...). Do they have two camera crews, one that drives around the East Coast and another that handles everything west of the Rockies? Or do they have a local crew in each city on standby? When they find one cool restaurant in Hawaii, do they look for three or four other interesting places nearby, to justify the cost of the trip? Similarly, I enjoyed seeing a crew of four drive from North Carolina to Los Angeles, the only thing missing here was one of those "Indiana Jones" style graphics to show me their progress across the country, so I could always tell what state they were in. (other than the states of confusion and exhaustion, that is...)
What web-sites did Zach's producer use to figure out which celebrities were shooting on location where? You know what, it's probably better that I not know, it doesn't matter. All that matters is that the trip paid off with awkward interactions with celebrities, who all seemed either disturbed or frustrated with Zach's stupid or insulting questions. (Finally, during the closing credits, all is revealed, the celebrities were in on the joke! And most, if not all, were willing to poke fun at their own filmographies or public images for the sake of comedy.). The crew makes it ALMOST all the way to L.A. before a car accident sidelines them and Zach comes very, very close to giving up on his dream. Thankfully, inspiration comes from an unlikely source, a game show airing in a bar on a rainy night, and just like that, the dream is back on track.
All they have to do is interview one more celebrity in the L.A. area and while they're in his mansion, steal something valuable enough to fund the last leg of the journey. Fortunately, that celebrity doesn't just have a Fabergé egg, he's got a whole carton's worth! That guy's so rich, he probably won't even miss them.
I've never watched the original interview series this is based on, which appears to have been produced quite sporadically between 2008 and 2018. But there are only 22 episodes, and it looks like they might be available on AmazonPrime - hell, I've already watched 63 episodes of "Arrested Development", with 21 to go - so once I'm done with that, maybe I need to do a deep dive on "Between the Ferns". Yeah, I realize I'd be working my way backwards, starting with the movie first, but there's nothing I can do about that now.
Also starring Zach Galifianakis (last seen in "Are You Here"), Lauren Lapkus (ditto), Will Ferrell (last seen in "Daddy's Home 2"), Ryan Gaul (last seen in "The Happytime Murders"), Jiavani Linayao, Edi Patterson (last seen in "Knives Out"), Rekha Shankar, Mary Scheer (last heard in "Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker"), Mary Holland (last seen in "Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates"), Mike Ivy, Bobby Tisdale (last seen in "Junebug"), Matt Besser (ditto), Phil Hendrie, Paul Rust (last seen in "Pee-Wee's Big Holiday"), A.D. Miles, Blake Clark (last heard in "Toy Story 4"), Paul F. Tompkins, Demi Adejuyigbe, Mandell Maughan, with cameos from Awkwafina (last heard in "The Angry Birds Movie 2"), Chance the Rapper, John Cho (last seen in "In Good Company"), Benedict Cumberbatch (last seen in "1917"), Peter Dinklage (also last heard in "The Angry Birds Movie 2"), Gal Gadot (last heard in "Ralph Breaks the Internet"), Tiffany Haddish (last heard in "The Secret Life of Pets 2"), Jon Hamm (last seen in "The Report"), Rashida Jones (last heard in "The Grinch"), Brie Larson (last seen in "Just Mercy"), John Legend (last seen in "Quincy"), David Letterman (last seen in "The Wizard of Lies"), Matthew McConaughey (last seen in "The Sea of Trees"), Paul Rudd (last seen in "How Do You Know"), Jason Schwartzman (last seen in "Wine Country"), Adam Scott (last seen in "Krampus"), Hailee Steinfeld (last seen in "Pitch Perfect 3"), Chrissy Teigen (last heard in "Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation"), Tessa Thompson (last seen in "Selma"), Phoebe Bridgers, Matt Berninger, Bruce Willis (last seen in "Breakfast of Champions") and archive footage of George Clooney (last seen in "Morning Glory"), Merv Griffin (last seen in "Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic"), Jay Leno (last seen in "Exit Through the Gift Shop"), Bill Maher (last seen in "Late Night"), Jerry Seinfeld (last seen in "Top Five").
RATING: 7 out of 10 mispronunciations of "Benedict Cumberbatch"
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