Everything Must Go [2010]

Alcoholism is always a good subject for a movie, and Everything Must Go, exploits it as its main theme. Luckily the mantra about how it’s a disease and all the other mainstream crap is quite subtle and you can hardly sense it, mostly by an almost exploitationist approach of the director and Will’s relaxed “acting”. When I saw the poster, I immediately had a bad vibe about the movie, thinking it is going to be another Ferrell dumbfest (Semi-Pro, Land of the Lost), but that lost look in his eyes gave me hope. Essentially if you took the alcohol out of the equation, this movie would be pretty boring, with a slow paced tempo and a quite mellow atmosphere it’s already a bit too easygoing, but alcohol makes up for all that. It’s interesting to watch to what lengths people will go to get what they need, and as always any work can be much more entertaining when you are drinking. Will showed actual acting skills, especially in a couple of scenes when the craving kicks in, I hope he does more of these comedy-drama flicks. Christopher Jordan Wallace (Kenny) provided an additional dosage of humor and is just a character that you will like as soon as you see him. Movie does not follow the usual formula that is used in mainstream Hollywood, with a rather light ending, and not a real closure, but still it delivers.

Nick Halsey is an alcoholic, and after six months of sobriety he is having the worst day of his life. He is sacked from his job and his wife threw all of his stuff from their home on the lawn and changed the locks. In this desperate situation Nick decides that it’s a good time to get drunk, but he will soon run out of money and since his credit cards has been canceled he’s in a real pickle. Forced to live on the lawn of his nice house in the suburbs, without money or wife he gives up on everything and just starts living and drinking unencumbered by the looks of the neighbors and his general ordeal. He even meets Kenny, a kid with a lot of time on his hands, who helps him with that childish hope that the world is a good place to live in. Living day by day he will soon discover that he’s not that different from his neighbors and the rest of the world…

Director: Dan Rush

Cast: Will Ferrell, Rebecca Hall, Stephen Root, Laura Dern, Michael Peña, Christopher Jordan Wallace

Fun Facts: Filming took place in Phoenix and Scottsdale Arizona.

Rating:

IMDb Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1531663/