Fantastic Fest 2024: Will & Harper Review

Directed by: Josh Greenbaum

Starring:
Will Ferrell
Harper Steele
Seth Meyers
Tina Fey
Kristen Wiig
Colin Jost
Will Forte
Molly Shannon
Tim Meadows
Paula Pell

Image Credit: Netflix

Running Time: 114 minutes
Rated R for language.

I think that most people tend to go into documentaries involving celebrities with a certain amount of skepticism. In a profession where public image is everything and people look at every moment for a chance to tear you down, the last thing most want to do is be raw and honest. And even in the best of situations, people don’t tend to get real in front of famous people and a camera crew. As such, it’s hard to take a documentary where a celebrity visits local communities as authentic.

It’s a pitfall that Harper Steele wisely addresses during a moment late in Will & Harper, which screened at Fantastic Fest with a premiere on Netflix this Friday. Calling out the fact that travelling with a world-famous celebrity in Will Ferrell and a camera crew is far from the typical trans experience lends emotional honesty to the rest of the film so that it can, as it turns out, more adroitly explore the universal truths of Steele’s journey.

Will & Harper begins with Ferrell and Steel alternately reading from the email that Steele sent to her friends a year prior in which she came out as trans. The former head writer at Saturday Night Live, Steele was instrumental in Ferrell’s career and the two have been close friends for almost 30 years.

Even in the early moments of the film, rereading the email, we see very clearly how emotional he is over the situation, immediately supportive while also being afraid of asking the wrong questions or saying the wrong thing. That’s what led to the documentary, as Ferrell and Steele decided to make their way from SNL’s studio across America toward Los Angeles in a car.

The trip serves multiple purposes for the two. For Steele, it’s trying to take the kind of cross-country road trip she has always loved doing but has been nervous about doing as a trans woman. For Ferrell, it’s the chance to learn more about his friend’s experiences and what it means to be transgender in America. And for both, it’s an opportunity to reconnect after both the pandemic and Steele’s transition, and to explore what it means for their friendship.

That friendship between Ferrell and Steele is at the core of the film, which is put together by Josh Greenbaum from over 200 hours of footage of their road trip. While it inherently touches on political topics in the world right now and acknowledges them at times, Greenbaum’s film is more interested in Steele’s journey and Ferrell’s desire to learn. While there are a few moments for laughs, like setting up lawn chairs in a Walmart parking lot or stopping by the White House, it’s the moments in the car when the questions come out that really hit home.

Through these quieter scenes, we learn right along with Ferrell about Steele’s experience in trying to come to terms with her gender dysphoria and what it meant for her to realize she is a woman. It’s deeply humanizing, but it’s also quite simply affecting on an emotional level. Ferrell provides an audience surrogate for all the questions a viewer might have, but it never comes off as him trying to make points for the camera. They’re simply the questions he has, and their banter is honest, vulnerable, and often quite funny, as you might expect in a conversation between two talented comedians who also happen to be incredibly close friends.

The stops that the two make result in some deeply touching and sometimes brutal moments. While many of the stops are surprisingly accepting, an ill-advised decision to visit a restaurant in Texas is uncomfortable for both men and the viewer, something the post-dinner car ride punctuates. And when Steele opens up about the darker thoughts she’s had during a stop late in the trip, it’s hard not to get misty-eyed.

For all the pain that gets let out during the trip though, it’s the love and acceptance on display that makes the movie stand out. That includes the sentiments not just from Ferrell, who provides a textbook example of what it really means to be an ally (including a few slip-ups), but also from Steele toward herself and Ferrell. And some of their stops result in quietly powerful moments, such as when they run into a therapist at the Grand Canyon who recalls her own guilt about how she handled a client with gender dysphoria – something that rings familiar for Steele based on a past experience.

Ultimately, despite all the tears it displays and inspires, Will & Harper is a largely uplifting and poignant doc about two friends who are rediscovering each other and finding out that in the end, it’s about taking the time to learn who the people we love are and knowing that even when things radically change, acceptance and understanding should be forever.

Fantastic Fest takes place in Austin, Texas from September 19th through the 26th.

9.5

The final score: review Amazing

The 411

Will & Harper channels Will Ferrell and Harper Steele's road trip into one of the absolute best documentaries of the year. The heartfelt, honest conversations between the two about Steele's transition hit at the core of what it means to be friends, while the stops on their cross-country trip may be funny or tear-inducing, but are always touching. This is a must-watch documentary that entertains as much as it enlightens, balanced on the back of what seems like a truly wonderful friendship.