In 2008, Zack Galifianakis and Funny or Die brought us a delightfully awkward interview video series which has grown into something even more delightful.
It all started with Michael Cera, and through the last ten years Galifianakis has brought us interviews with former President Barack Obama to Justin Bieber.
And last Friday Netflix brought us “Between Two Ferns: The Movie.”
We follow Galifianakis as he is shooting a documentary about his time filming the video series.
In this almost origin story of the popular YouTube series, Galifianakis plays himself working in Flinch, North Carolina, at a public access television station. And Will Ferrell also plays himself as an owner of Funny or Die who put Galifianakis’ shows online without his permission.
Once he realizes the show got clicks, he kept asking his famous friends to be on the show knowing people watch the show to make fun of Galifianakis.
One confusing part for me was Ferrell played himself as a founder of Funny or Die — which is true in real life — but it’s never answered if Galifianakis is playing himself as the actor or a character with the same name who came up with the idea to make fun of celebrities in interviews. Although this was a bit confusing, I accepted it. Galifianakis being a random person with a dream of having his own talk show makes it funnier to me.
The movie begins with Galifianakis interviewing Matthew McConaughey. Some plumbing issues — you’ll have to find it out for yourself — cause the television network’s building to flood and “momentarily kills McConaughey.”
This prompts Ferrell to visit Galifianakis and tells him he must drive from North Carolina and shoot 10 “Between Two Ferns” interviews on their way to Los Angeles to keep giving the Funny or Die website clicks.
If he and his crew get there at the end of two weeks, he’ll give them their own nightly talk show.
The rest of the movie can be summed up by celebrity cameos, celebrity cameos and more celebrity cameos. From Brie Larson to David Letterman, Galifianakis interviews celebrities in the traditional “Between Two Ferns” style interviews including antihumor and making fun of the actor and their work.
The ridiculous details made the movie more enjoyable — like Galifianakis’s obsession with the ferns used in the series. Before every show he has a “fern-spection” to make sure the ferns were still healthy after 10 years of filming. Throughout the movie he carries them around wherever he goes and even puts them in the front seat while his crew must sit in the backseat during the entire road trip.
But it’s revealed his producer buys new ferns before every show because she doesn’t know how to take care of them.
If you enjoyed the YouTube series, I would definitely check this movie out. It gave me feelings of nostalgia by seeing the identical interview style of the YouTube series.
I would rate this movie a 4/5. It was hilarious, but there were a few things that could have been delivered better. I would still definitely recommend watching the movie.
“Between Two Ferns: The Movie” can be streamed on Netflix.
Nicole Hindberg can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @HindbergNicole