Somewhere buried in Kelly Reichardt‘s slice-of-life film, Certain Women, there’s a unified message of empowerment and alienation. Getting to this message, however, is an excruciating test of one’s patience. This is mostly by design as Reichardt focuses on aesthetics and mood more than the film’s narrative. The first story follows Laura (Laura Dern), a lawyer representing a client (Jared Harris) who insists he’s entitled to a workers’ comp settlement, despite being told repeatedly that he has no case. The shortest, and least developed, story is the second one, which involves a husband and wife (James Le Gros and Michelle Williams) constructing a remote weekend getaway home for their family. And the final story is about a Native American horse rancher (Lily Gladstone) who falls for a young lawyer (Kristen Stewart) teaching night classes, an innocent attraction that turns into blatant stalking.

The source material for Certain Women came from a collection of short stories and the film’s format reflects this directly. While each segment contains well-developed characters in unique circumstances, Reichardt drops us right into the middle of a story that’s already unfolding. Details of how the characters got where they are, or where they are going next, are excluded, a technique that can be frustrating. Shot gorgeously on 16mm, Certain Women is a studious slow burner that should appease fans of the auteur filmmaker while others may be left scratching their heads.

Rating:
6.5/10

Ramin Bahrani makes a loud return with 99 Homes, his follow-up to the disappointingly received At Any Price. Taking his aim at the U.S. housing crisis, Bahrani tells a gripping story that extends out to a damning statement on American capitalism and the exceedingly wealthy one percent. It’s a big step towards the mainstream for Bahrani, boasting a terrific cast and a relevant, necessary subject. And even with a problematic final act, one threatening to sink the entire film, its dramatic strengths end up winning out.

From the first frames, Bahrani blatantly expresses his intentions to generate ire from viewers. Real estate shark Rick Carver (Michael Shannon) looks at a bathroom covered in blood with a body on the toilet. Carver came to evict the homeowner for defaulting on his mortgage, and the owner decided to take his own life rather than vacate. Carver doesn’t care; he tells police the man’s suicide is a selfish act, one that leaves the homeowner’s family to fend for themselves. Within minutes, Bahrani establishes the cruel, emotionless world of his film.

Carver’s next person to evict is Dennis Nash (Andrew Garfield), a construction worker down on his luck. With the housing market crashing, no one has any interest in building homes, meaning little to no construction work. Due to issues with the bank, Nash loses the family home, leaving his mother Lynn (Laura Dern) and son Connor (Noah Lomax) with nowhere to go. Eventually Rick and Dennis’ paths cross again, and Rick ends up hiring Dennis to help clean out vacated homes for him. Dennis resists the idea of working for the man who kicked him out of his home at first, but the high paychecks prove to be too tempting.

Bahrani’s point, along with co-writer Amir Naderi (taken from a story by Bahrani and Bahareh Azimi), is to show the way capitalism has morphed into something monstrous. Nash represents the average hard-working American earning their own success, while Carver symbolizes the way success now defines itself as profiting off the suffering of the less fortunate. Carver’s philosophy on life leaves no room for sentiment or emotions. Dennis continually finds ways to get his family home back, something Carver finds ridiculous. “They’re just boxes,” Carver says to Nash. Bahrani uses Nash and his family to keep the human story elements at the forefront, making Carver’s soulless statements look all the more horrifying.

Garfield does a great job as Nash, giving a believable and emotional performance, but the real highlight is Michael Shannon. Playing a character written as a total villain, Shannon exudes a level of charisma that, combined with having to say most of the film’s more memorable lines, actually makes Carver enjoyable to watch. And even though he’s a cruel, unsympathetic character, his motivations and back story are fleshed out to make his behavior understandable. Carver, like Nash, simply does what he can to survive and prosper, except one of them is willing to go much further than the other to ensure their security.

Sadly, Bahrani feels the need to up the ante of his dramatic stakes, using a major plot point in the latter half to shift things into thriller territory. As the intensity builds, or at least tries to, so does the unsubtle political commentary. It’s an unfortunate move because the last thing the film needs is more emphasis. For that reason the climax falls flat, a stale effort to go out strong turning into poorly misguided melodrama.

Bahrani’s 99 Homes is still a success, even if it’s a small one. Its great cast and effective drama, at least for the majority of the film, are undeniably compelling. If At Any Price is Bahrani’s failed attempt to break into the major leagues, 99 Homes corrects that mistake.

Originally published as part of our coverage for the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with an oversized backpack and a boot thrown off a mountain. Or at least that’s how Wild begins, the adaptation of Cheryl Strayed’s memoir recounting her decision at 26 to hike the Pacific Crest Trail in an attempt to face the person she’d become. In the film’s opening scene, Cheryl—played with straightforward vulnerability by Reese Witherspoon—sits atop a mountain crest and sings a line from Simon and Garfunkel’s “El Condor Pasa”, her bloody and exposed foot reveals a toenail barely holding on. “I’d rather be a hammer than a nail,” she whispers as she rips the toenail off, rocking backward in pain and incidentally knocking her boot off the mountain. So she takes the other boot off, throws it after its partner and screams in rage. And that’s Cheryl. One part sheer determination, two parts anger.

Wild falls into the same vein as other find-thyself-in-nature style movies, like Into the Wild, with a few of the same frustrations attached. Primarily the scenario of people facing nature with very little experience in naïve attempts to prove themselves. Oh, how nature loves to laugh at such people. It’s hard to be prepared for the harshness of the outdoors while navel-gazing ones way to personal peace and acceptance. I fully expected to find myself annoyed with Cheryl, but here is where director Jean-Marc Vallée proves his worth in his ability to take true-life characters with rough edges and paint them on to the screen in colors that attract and stir emotional identifiability.

Last year Vallée gave us Dallas Buyers Club, a remarkable bio-pic that earned Matthew McConaughey his first Oscar. The same grasp on perspective he offered last year on a feisty HIV survivor in 1980s Texas, he wields delicately in Wild.  The film doesn’t follow a clear line of action, allowing Cheryl’s journey to pull from her the pieces of her past that brought her to her present. In fact, much of the film is her daily routine. Packing up, hiking for miles alone, and setting up camp each night. As she hikes memories from her past surface giving us insight into not necessarily what led to her self-destructive behavior, but how at rock bottom a few months alone in the wilderness seemed as good a way as any to wipe a slate clean.

These memories include many of her mother Bobbi, who raised Cheryl and her brother on her own after escaping an abusive marriage. Bobbi is played by Laura Dern with an uninhibited sense of wonder and optimism that is never idealistic. Bobbi’s wisdom often comes back to her, her mother’s mantra pushing her forward, urging Cheryl to put herself “in the way of beauty.” The loss of her mother to cancer only a few years previous to her hike is clearly a pain she carries, but doesn’t seem to be the reason for Cheryl’s string of rash behavior, including habitually cheating on her seemingly wonderful husband (Thomas Sadoski) and falling in with heroin users. When her escapist behavior leads to an unwanted pregnancy—and the rare scenes we get with Gaby Hoffman as her best friend—Cheryl rashly attaches herself to the nearest wild idea in the form of a pamphlet for the PCT.

Both Witherspoon and Dern are likely to gain some much deserved awards recognition for their roles, especially impressive for Dern who doesn’t actually have that much screen time. But Witherspoon is the one who carries the film with the same fortitude she portrays hauling Cheryl’s comically huge backpack. Narration interspersed throughout the film with Cheryl’s complaints about her bruises, her food options, her varying levels of fatigue, and of course her emotional breakthroughs, are all inserted in an unobtrusive manner and spoken by Witherspoon with no hint of overt sentimentality.

With cinematographer Yves Bélanger on his side, Vallée certainly gets some exceptional footage of the PCT, but there’s hardly a nature shot that doesn’t place Cheryl squarely in the middle of it. The story is hers, and her setting, while gorgeous, is the static unchanging constant that provides her a way to focus in the midst of her tailspin. Nature is of course quite treacherous, but she faces each hardship with the determination that nothing could be more dangerous than the danger she poses herself. She encounters several people in her journey, some of them providing clear examples of the added pressure to be a single woman, vulnerable on the trail (not to mention in life). An interaction with two hunters in a scene in the woods is especially chilling. Nick Hornby adapted the novel for screen, and he excellently weaves Cheryl’s solitude, memories, and interactions along a wayward path, that while not always logical, helps prove Cheryl’s point that we aren’t only the sum of our experiences, in our ‘now’ we’re the interpretation of those experiences.

Wild is funny, harrowing, gritty, and should resonate with anyone who’s had any shred of self-doubt. Those looking for a survival tale will find a decidedly more contemplative story, where surviving one’s own condemnation proves at least equally as challenging as battling the elements.

As a woman who changed her last name to Strayed after her divorce as some sort of personal penance, Cheryl Strayed is clearly the sort of woman who would always need to be loud and explicitly honest about her transformation to feel complete in it. And so she must find it comforting to know her portrayal on-screen holds an amplifier to her story and universalizes it for anyone who’s needed to find their own freedom and the strength to accept themselves.

Closing weekend of the Mill Valley Film Festival just proves the authority of this small festival. It’s rare for a film festival to have such a high percentage of excellent films. No wonder its gained a reputation as a finely curated festival with its tastes squarely in line with mass audience appeal, not to mention the Academy. Surrounded by the beauty of Marin County, and with the emphasis always fixed on the art and not a hectic or saturated film lineup, Mill Valley provides one of the best festival experiences a modern movie lover can have. It’s been an excellent 11 days and the last two days left us especially satisfied.

Part-Time Bad Guy

[Ananda]

With film leads Wes Bentley and Jason Isaacs on hand to support him, first time director Saar Klein happily introduced his film After the Fall Saturday night, immediately telling the audience he wanted them to feel they could laugh, even if it seemed uncomfortable. An award-winning editor, Saar has worked most especially with Terrence Malick with whom he edited The Thin Red Line and The New World. If nothing else, Saar at least picked up on Malick’s sense of quiet storytelling, and his film uses the technique expertly.

The tale of an insurance adjustor, Bill Scanlon (Wes Bentley), who has recently been laid off, the film begins with Bill continuing his daily routine in order to avoid disclosing to his wife (Vinessa Shaw) that their situation has changed. Exhausting all his contacts, Bill tries with no success to find himself another job. At a particularly low moment he takes his pistol, wanders off into the desert and contemplates just what he’s capable of. Driven by thirst he wanders into a nearby model home, stumbling upon an adulterous couple using the house’s accommodations. They mistake his gun in hand as a stickup and offer all their money. Driven to new lows, Bill takes it, willingly. Thus Bill’s entrance into the quick cash life of petty crime, and as the bills pile up, he risks more and more to steal his way into keeping his family afloat.

As an especially upright man in every other aspect of his life, it’s not surprising Bill befriends a local down and out detective (Jason Isaacs), despite the threat this poses to his new career. But Bill’s downfall may just be that he isn’t actually a bad guy. Klein’s morally ambiguous tale is appealing for much the same reasons Breaking Bad sucks viewers in, and it even takes place in Albuquerque as well. But whereas Walter White honed his criminal craft, Bill is always at odds with his new profession, and at every moment at war with himself. Bentley handles the complexity with ease, his face reflecting Bill’s innocence, but always with an undercurrent of tension, ready to snap. Isaacs as Detective McTiernan is more of a stretch, but Klein pulls it all together into an intriguing and compelling film.

In The Way Of Beauty

[Ananda]

As if bringing us the raw and transcendent Dallas Buyers Club last year didn’t prove his worth enough, Jean-Marc Vallée presents another stirring biopic. Based on Cheryl Strayed’s memoir, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, the film Wild recounts Strayed’s journey to face her demons by walking 1,100 miles on one of the longest trails in America, up California to Washington. Buying herself REI equipment she doesn’t know how to use, and loading up an enormous hiking pack, Cheryl (mesmerizingly played by Reese Witherspoon) slowly sets out along a path in the Mojave desert with no clear ambition other than to try and find where she went wrong in life. Still in grief at the loss of her mother (portrayed in memories by Laura Dern in scene-stealing loveliness) and having recently divorced her husband after cheating on him multiple times and fallen in with heroin users, Cheryl’s final fall to the bottom was an unplanned pregnancy and subsequent abortion.

Cheryl’s distrust of men is everywhere throughout the film, instilled in her by an abusive alcoholic father, and perpetuated by the occasionally skeezy man  she runs into as a single woman on a reclusive trail. Some of her more harrowing moments have less to do with the wild and more to do with the people she comes across. With a subtle and highly effective narrative running throughout the film, the words of the book are used excellently to showcase the transformation happening within Cheryl during her journey. As she learns to forgive herself. As she learns to let go of her anger at the universe for taking her mother so early. As she finds strength and manages never to give up despite having permission to do so.

While there is clearly plenty of beautiful landscape to look at throughout the film, Vallée’s camera focus always includes Cheryl. It’s her connection to the world she’s trudging through that allows viewers to experience her realizations with her. With exquisite cinematography by Yves Bélanger and a perfectly paced screenplay by Nick Hornby, this film may just win as my favorite of the festival. And I’m not alone in my thinking. The California Film Institute awarded the unparalleled Laura Dern with the Mill Valley Award for her performance in Wild, presented to her by Andrew Stanton, Pixar legend extraordinaire. Her passion for the film was eloquently stated in her acceptance of the award, and I’d be surprised not to hear her name circulating among award buzz in the next few months.

Hope Endures In the Desert Sun

[Bernard]

After watching Abderrahmane Sissako’s stunning ensemble piece Timbuktu, the general feeling people walking out of the theater was one of deflation. “I’m going to need a pick-me-up after that one!” I heard someone say. The film, set in the harsh desert landscape of the titular North African city, does admittedly end on a tragic note. The impression that endures, however, is of the beautiful relationships and quiet moments shared by the characters before the film’s dark finale. C’est la vie.

The film’s handful of stories are more parallel than interwoven, overlapping at key moments. The larger theme of the picture is the contentious, often violent dynamic between the oppressive Muslim jihadists patrolling the streets with their weapons and the indomitable citizens who refuse to compromise their humanity, often paying the highest price for their transgressions.

These are sweet people: We see a loving family of three, living a quiet life under the Sahara stars, herding cattle during the day; a group of musicians, playing their instruments quietly so as not to alert nearby jihadists. Despite their innocuous lifestyles, their oppressors always loom, ready to descend: A young woman is forced to marry a jihadist man, despite her mother’s refusal; a woman fishmonger is taken into custody after refusing to wear gloves. Their fighting spirit is inspiring, and Sissako does African cinema proud.

Hot off directing 3-time Oscar winner Dallas Buyers Club, Jean-Marc Vallée‘s next film has released its first trailer — check it out below!

Wild seems very much in the groove for Vallée as a true-life drama following a strong central character. Based on a memoir by Cheryl Strayed, the film stars Reese Witherspoon (who also serves as a producer) as a woman who is recovering from a failing marriage and the death of her mother by seeking nature. From the looks of the trailer, this may be a performance to resurrect Witherspoon’s recently quiet career. The ingredients seem to be there for an Oscar nomination push.

Wild‘s screenplay was written by celebrated author and screenwriter Nick Hornby. Laura Dern and Gaby Hoffmann co-star. The film is scheduled for a December release from Fox Searchlight Pictures.

Watch trailer for Wild

Based on the wildly popular John Greene novel, The Fault in Our Stars, directed by Josh Boone, has a can’t-fail combination of gifted, pretty, rising young stars and an invincibly sympathetic, sob-inducing story of big dreams and heartache that will, without a doubt, draw piles and piles of money into the laps of all involved in the production. Many a skeptic cinephile will find themselves approaching the film with folded arms, expecting a manipulative tearjerker expertly designed to appeal to the teen idol masses. The film is, in fact, every bit a product of the Hollywood cheese factory, but it offers much more than that; it’s bravely earnest, self-aware, crafted with care, and undeniably life-affirming.

“Depression is not a side effect of cancer. Depression is a side effect of dying.” It’s biting remarks like these, spoken by Shailene Woodley as plucky 16-year-old cancer patient Hazel Grace, that elevate the film high above manufactured YA mediocrity. Hazel’s lived with metastatic thyroid cancer (which mostly affects her lungs) for the larger part of her life, dragging around an oxygen tank with a tube fed to her nose at all times. She refuses to pity herself, a quality so endearing it isn’t fair. She’s mostly concerned with how her imminent fate will affect her sweet parents (Laura Dern and Sam Trammell) than she is afraid of leaving this world. At once cynical and compassionate, witty and self-deprecating, Hazel Grace is irresistible.

Hazel acquires a persistent admirer at a cancer support group named Augustus Waters (Ansel Elgort), a brazen, unstoppably confident young man who pops cigarettes in his mouth but never lights them. Augustus (Gus for short), though in remission, lost a leg to disease, so he keeps the thing that could kill him hanging from his lips, but never gives it the power to do its dirty work. “A metaphor,” he proudly calls the strange habit through an impish grin. Yes, Gus should be incredibly annoying, but he’s not. This is because Elgort, like Woodley, is so charismatic you’ll pretty much buy whatever he’s selling, including an unlit cigarette.

A problem with most young actors is that they tend to be given dialogue that their intellect isn’t mature enough to support. They say all these smart, insightful things, but you can see on their face that they frankly don’t fully understand the weight of what they’re talking about. Woodley and Elgort are gifted in that they exude intelligence, thoughtfulness, and savvy, making smart dialogue sound smart, the corniest lines sound terribly romantic and natural.

Shortly after they meet at the support group, Hazel asks Gus why he’s staring at her. He answers: “Because you’re beautiful.” Typing that made me cringe. But watching the scene unfold, you see the utter conviction and sincerity in Elgort’s eyes, Woodley lets out a small, nervous laugh, and amazingly…you smile. They’ve got you, those damn kids. Then, as Gus turns to say goodbye to another girl from the group, Woodley almost inaudibly mutters, “…I’m not beautiful.” Perfect timing. The heart melts.

For a while, Hazel and Gus swirl around each other in a whirlwind teen fantasy, flirting, texting, and charming each other to pieces. When Hazel is invited to Amsterdam by Van Houten (Willem Dafoe), her favorite author, she’s overwhelmed with excitement, but her dream escapes her when her mom, full of regret, breaks the news that they simply don’t have enough money to make the trip. Dern is absolutely wonderful, filling every frame she occupies with love and acceptance. Hazel’s dream is saved by Gus, who uses his last wish (granted by the Genie wish foundation) to fly them to Amsterdam where they indeed meet the famed author. The interaction is an unexpectedly intense watershed moment, with the young actors playing beautifully off of the seasoned Dafoe.

Woodley’s role is a colorful one, covering a wide spectrum of emotions, and she wears every iota of them on her face. She can make you laugh with a simple raised eyebrow, or make you sob with a subtle quiver of the lip. Her talent is beyond her years, which is fitting, as Hazel is forced to face more trauma before her 18th year than most people do in a lifetime. The physical torment endured by Hazel due to her condition are conveyed excellently, and the danger of her lungs failing is always lingering in the back of your mind, defining the stakes.

Elgort is suave and super-cool as you’d expect, but his looks are pleasantly pedestrian; he’s handsome no doubt, but he also looks like your everyday teen with his puffy Nikes and thrift store leather jackets. When he leans in and says, “I’m in love with you, Hazel Grace,” he doesn’t blink, doesn’t shake. He means what he says, and we feel it.

The film is less about the sadness of cancer than it is about the wry skepticism and wild energy of teenagers. Being a teen is a beautifully flawed experience on its own, but Hazel and Gus’ poise in the face of doom makes their story all the more inspiring and memorable. The film’s ending, while predictably tragic, doesn’t define the experience. Yes, it’s manipulative, and yes, tears will be shed by the bucketful. But what will stick with you is the strong chemistry between the young lovebirds, which is the greatest victory for any romance movie. Color me impressed.

The Fault in Our Stars trailer

You will be hard pressed to find a film this year that is better acted or better crafted than Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master. In Anderson’s sixth directorial film comes an epic tale of made up religion that has earmarks of a cult and it’s radical followers. Even though the film never comes out and says it directly, the film at the very least resembles that of Scientology. You end up walking away with more questions than answers as The Master was perplexing as well as absorbing, but above all, it was hypnotic.

From the very beginning we see that Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix) has a drinking problem as well as a troubled sexual past that may explain his erratic behavior. To say that Freddie has a problem with drinking is putting it lightly. He is literally poisoning himself with what he drinks as often times he makes his concoctions with whatever is within reach; sometimes that means paint thinner. As his service in the Navy ends with the end of World War II, he stumbles from job to job until one night he walks aboard a large yacht.

Unbeknownst to him, the yacht belongs to a man named Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Soon enough Freddie meets Dodd, who people call the master, and finds out that he is a self-proclaimed jack of all trades; “a writer, a doctor, a nuclear physicist and a theoretical philosopher, but above all, I am a man.” Dodd is eager to take Freddie under his wing. Freddie, a troubled soul looking for anything to cling on to, has no problems with that.

I found it especially interesting when Dodd introduces his family someone new that he first introduces Freddie before the rest of his family. In fact, the last person he acknowledges is his son, who does not believe what his father his preaching and at one point says, “Can’t you see what he is doing? He is making things up as he goes along.” The connection between the two only grows the more Freddie gets involved.

Freddie is not afraid to beat people up who question what Dodd is preaching. I think that speaks to how much he wanted to attach and be part of something. However, by the end you start to wonder if Freddie is being people up because he is afraid that the questioners are correct. Slowly, it is slightly implied that he may be casting his own doubts on Dodd, like when he is listening to him speak about how laughter is the secret on two separate occasions.

There is a scene early on when Lancaster Dodd interviews Freddie with intrusive questions about his past that is quite possibly the best scene in any film of this year. Emotions fill the screen as you see tears roll down Freddie’s eyes and the vein in his forehead as he screams in anger. It is the kind of scene that takes the air out of the room and makes your knuckles hurt from tension.

The Master had a couple of standout scenes where you get a glimpse of how Freddie sees the world. The obvious scene is when a roomful of people are cheering on Dodd dancing, Freddie sees every woman in the room naked. Another eerie but more subtle moment is when Dodd’s wife asks Freddie to look into her eyes and then change the color of them. You can notice that her eyes do in fact change.

Joaquin Phoenix puts on a performance that I do not think will be matched in his career again. From the very first teaser trailer it was pretty evident that his character is insane. My instant reaction from the little bit that I saw then was this could easily be an Oscar worthy performance by him. Now after seeing the film and his full performance, it only reaffirms my initial reaction.

Nearly matching the phenomenal performance of Phoenix was Philip Seymour Hoffman as the charismatic religious leader. He comes off as a confident speaker that can win over most doubters with his charm but you can tell that he is masking his own problems. In private there are some moments when he relies on his wife Peggy (Amy Adams) to guide him and tell him everything is going to be okay.

The Master felt almost like it was a companion piece to There Will Be Blood (which is currently one of only two perfectly rated films on Way Too Indie). The overall tone felt very much the same courtesy of Jonny Greenwood’s score in both films. But also the subject matter is similar; two powerful leaders who look to take advantage of the weak and powerless. Even though Paul Thomas Anderson replaced his go-to cinematographer Robert Elswit with Mihai Malaimare Jr. for this film, there were many epic shots including some outside tracking shots similar to ones that worked so well in There Will Be Blood.

While The Master did not quite have the instant masterpiece feeling after watching it as There Will Be Blood did, it certainly adds to the already impressive arsenal of films done by Paul Thomas Anderson. He is a modern day master (no pun intended) filmmaker that will years for now be studied and compared to. What makes this film work is that it is as ambiguous to itself just as the characters are portrayed in the film. The Master demands the viewer to read between the lines the whole time with implications but never answers questions for you. The last scene is a perfect example of this as it opens up a different theory that was mentioned earlier in the film depending how you interpret it. It is a challenging but rewarding film if you are willing to connect the dots yourself.

It has been less than a month since the movie lords graced us with a first glimpse of P.T. Anderson’s newest film, The Master. But it was literally just a glimpse as it served more as a teaser clip than a full blown trailer. Today we have been blessed with the second teaser clip for The Master, which comes in at about the same runtime of a minute and a half.

Absent in the teaser was title character Philip Seymour Hoffman, who finally makes an appearance here as the charismatic leader known as “The Master” whose religion is about to take off in America. Joaquin Phoenix, a troubled ex-Navy man, becomes his right-hand man.

We will still have to wait for the full trailer to be released but this certainly wets our appetite for what will hopefully be P.T. Anderson’s next masterpiece. The Master will be released in theaters on October 12th.

Watch the second teaser clip for The Master:

Everything Must Go is a drama adapted from a short story that was directed by Dan Rush, his first feature film. The film generated mixed reviews after premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival last year. The synopsis of a man losing his job and a wife who throws all of his possessions across their lawn sounds like a setup for a comedy, especially when that man is Will Ferrell, but the film sticks to a more serious tone.

Nick Halsey (Will Ferrell) is an alcoholic sales representative who just got fired from his job. But his problems do not end right there. When he arrives home, after making a stop for alcohol of course, he finds that all of his possessions are out on the front lawn of his home. Attached to the front door is a note from his wife that explains their relationship is over. The spare key that is normally hidden under the plant was removed and the locks on the door have been changed.

Having nowhere else to sleep Nick decides to sleep in a chair of his on the front lawn. Apparently sleeping in his car was an afterthought. Upon waking up from water sprinklers he notices a woman across the street moving in. He greets her and explains to her the reason that all of his stuff on his lawn is because he is having a yard sale. He asks her if she would watch his stuff so he could go to the store but she is not able to. So he gets a neighborhood kid to watch his stuff while he goes to the liquor store to get more alcohol.

Not being able to find his keys to the car, he borrows the kid’s bike. It is at the store that he discovers that his wife has cancelled the joint checking account. Luckily for him, he still has cash for his purchase. On the bike ride home he runs into a person repossessing his car. We still have not seen his wife at this point (and we never do) but from the note we know she left him because of his drinking problem and also because he cheated on her.

Nick is not very determined to do anything but sit around and drink beer on his lawn. A neighbor ends up calling the cops on him but Nick is in luck because his AA sponsor is a detective. He pushes Nick into packing his things up otherwise he will have to arrest him. The detective helps him out by telling him that he can hold a yard sale for 5 days to buy some time. So turns out he is going to have that yard sale after all.

There is a pivotal scene in the film is when Nick is preaching about fighting back when times are tough, it is then that he realizes that he is not fighting back right now in his life. It becomes apparent to Nick that he is currently following his drunken father’s footsteps when he watches an old childhood video where his father is drinking. You get the sense that Nick is a good person deep down and really does want to do something with his life now.

Many feel like this is Will Ferrell’s first true dramatic role considering Stranger Than Fiction was more of a dramedy than anything. It must be refreshing for him to do such a different role than what he is used to playing. Ferrell is surprisingly good at playing a low key average-man and he even makes it look natural.

Everything Must Go had opportunities to be very cliché but it managed to avoid most of them thus making it a little more enjoyable than your average film. The film is depressing from the very beginning and does not budge too much from being a downer but that by no means is a bad thing. It tackles a dark subject of alcoholism and captures it well. Not losing hope is the theme of the film and I would reiterate that for people watching it as it does tend to get better after the halfway point.