What hath Will wrought? Personally a little Will Ferrell goes a long way, and in Everything Must Go there’s way too much Ferrell. Everything Must Go is Ferrell doing indie style cinema only with the same old Ferrell shtick.

I get it, you don’t have a movie if Ferrell’s character isn’t a dipsomaniac who lives on his front lawn after his wife throws all the household furniture and items out the door, changes the locks, and freezes him out of his bank account ($45K) until he signs divorce papers. Oh, and he just lost his job, and as a later scene informs us he could’ve gotten his job back if he didn’t stick a Swiss Army Knife blade in his superior’s front tire.

Rebecca Hall plays Ferrell’s across-the-street neighbor and her talent is wasted. Michael Peña plays a cop/friend who tries to help out only he has to stick to the reality of the script (absurdist) rather than the way his character is written (serious no-bullshit kind of pragmatic guy).

By the end, Ferrell actually starts to sell his possessions and gain control of his life. But Everything Must Go is a movie that never overcomes its one-joke premise. Everything Must Go is currently camped out at area theaters.

– Michael Bergeron