“Between Two Ferns: The Movie” is a Netflix movie about an unacclaimed internet talk show featuring Zach Galifianakis’ awkward jokes that aren’t funny.
“Between Two Ferns’“ is a new Netflix Original Film starring Zach Galifianakis. Photo from collider.com
The film is formatted like a documentary, or what Netflix classified as a “mockumentary,” revolving around Galifianakis and his journey to become a television talk show host. Within the documentary is a documentary in the making, which gives the film a weird “Inception” feeling.
The format and character dynamics are similar to that of “The Office.” Galifianakis is reminiscent of Michael Scott ,and his director is kind of like Pam Beesly. They use a lot of the cinematic elements that “The Office” uses with close-ups.
In the movie, Galifianakis drags his crew all across the country to film 10 episodes in two weeks, filming interviews with celebrities who mostly hate his presence. Most of his interviews consist of him making fun of the celebrity to their face and creating a lot of awkward tension.
One of the weirdest parts of the film is his boss being Will Ferrell, who plays himself in this film as most of the cast does. Ferrell is the one who sends Galifianakis on this insane journey, hoping it’s so difficult that Galifianakis will fail.
Throughout their journey, he is being followed by cameras for his documentary which adds next to nothing to the film. In most of the movie you didn’t even realize it was happening until a camerawoman came out of nowhere.
Galifianakis pretends that every expense is being covered by Ferrell, when in reality he does it on his dollar and inevitably blows through most of his money — thanks to his many adult film rentals and snacks in his hotel room.
The only part I enjoyed was the theme and the friendships that were built with the characters. The overall theme is about sticking to your true self and that even though selling out to achieve your dreams is tempting, doing something you love is much more rewarding.
Spoiler alert, he does make it with all 10 poorly put-together episodes in two weeks. Throughout those two weeks, you see Galifianakis start to grow on his crew members because honestly, they hated him at the beginning of their trip. The bond that they showcased was inspirational and showed that even the most annoying people that you know could be alright.
His director in the film showed a strong interest in him and pushed him to pursue his happiness and his unique self. While everyone else hated him, she did everything she could for him during the entire movie, and he doesn’t appreciate it until the very end.
In all, Galifianakis played a terrible talk show host and was rarely funny, but the relationships throughout the movie are what keeps you from turning it off altogether.
Rating: 2/5
Madison Appleby is a campus correspondent for The Daily Campus. She can be reached via email at madison.appleby@uconn.edu.
