Everything Must Go
Review by Paul Preston
Welcome to Today I Watched…, a series of posts documenting my new challenge – watch a movie a day for the rest of my life. Keep coming back to TheMovieGuys.net to find out what I watch each day…and get my take on it.
When I see a movie that’s a new release in theaters or for home viewing, I’ll give it a proper review in the “Reviews”, otherwise, I’ll write about it here.
March 9, 2017 – Gifted – catch the early review of Marc Webb’s return to indie dramas in the REVIEWS category of TheMovieGuys.net.
March 10, 2017 – Everything Must Go
Here’s more proof that if your film needs a dramatic lead, maybe it’s not such a bad idea to consider Will Ferrell. Ferrell is hilarious in nearly every movie he’s in. He can swing between unctuous/funny (Anchorman) and sweet/funny (Elf), and often ends up being hilarious in something not that great (he’s funny as hell in the otherwise-awful Land of the Lost). But when you catch him in Stranger Than Fiction or Everything Must Go, you realize he’ll tap his sadness just as much as his wackiness and the results are equally as effective (his turn in the meta section of The Lego Movie is great, too).
In Everything Must Go, Ferrell plays Nick, a former baseball prospect that’s now spent the greater part of his life in a routine office job. He’s also an alcoholic, and the loss of his job and separation from his wife finds him with all his belongings on his front lawn. He holds a lawn sale for all of his possessions to start over. It’s here that Nick interacts with his neighbors as if he’s never met them before (which is possible when you’re an alcoholic in a shit job). Rebecca Hall is the pregnant wife across the street who may or may be neglected by her husband and Christopher Jordan Wallace is the shiftless kid in the neighborhood who helps Nick with his sale. All the other kids in the neighborhood are thieves or thugs!
There’s enough of a bad side to Nick to make the film dramatic, but not too much to where we waver into Leaving Las Vegas territory – where there’s no hope and no desire to have any hope. There are a couple of surprises and this is the only film credit of any kind for Dan Rush, who wrote and directed. I’d say this is enough of an indie effort to warrant more projects. Somebody call Dan.
Directed by: Dan Rush
Release Date: October 14, 2011
Run Time: 97 Minutes
Country: USA
Rated: R
Distributor: Lionsgate
