Everything Must Go (2011)

Evoking such notes as the ones from Stranger than Fiction, we find again that Will Ferrell possessed the ability to act, and act well. Everything Must Go, based off of the short story Why Don’t You Dance? by Raymond Carver, which I have read and is very good, tells the story of Nick Halsey (Will Ferrell), a recovering alcoholic man who is having a really bad day. Within the course of about 90 minutes (and about five minutes for us viewers), Nick loses his job due to an accusation, and then comes home, sad and jobless, only to find out that his wife has left him (because of the same accusation), changed the locks, and has put all of his stuff on the front lawn (we don’t even see the wife in the film). Nick sits in the front lawn in his recliner chair, and quietly begins his relapse. He meets and gets closer with his neighbors, mainly Kenny (a young brilliant actor named Christopher Jordan Wallace) and Samantha (Rebecca Hall), one being a young reclusive teenager who wants to learn how to play baseball, and one being a pregnant young married woman whose husband is nowhere to be found. He meets with these people, and they try their best to help him walk his way through life, even though it seems like every single thing that he touches falls apart. This would be a distressing thing. And the film is a distressing film. For about eighty percent of the film, you feel terrible. You feel awful watching this film. It is reality staring you in the face, the most well-meaning tornado of destruction you can see on film. And it works so well. We knew that Will Ferrell was a good actor with Stranger than Fiction. Here, he gives off an Oscar-caliber performance. With Will Ferrell in Everything Must Go and Mel Gibson in The Beaver, we have two brilliant performances that I fear will be overlooked by the Academy when January comes ‘round. But he can’t hold the film up by himself. The script is this slice of melancholy, dipped in small specks of extremely black humor that only the extremely messed up souls (like myself) will laugh at. And there were a few times that I did laugh at this movie. I laughed, I grieved, I marveled. This is a marvelous film. And it is going to go down unappreciated and forgotten. So this is a note to all of my friends--I am about to force you to watch this movie multiple times, just like I did with Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. I’m decently sure that my efforts to get the film recognized have brought about 200 dollars of revenue for the film. And my efforts will go to work again! But seriously-if you know me, I’m gonna make you watch this DVD. Enjoy.
8.5/10