Between Two Ferns: The Movie Review

September 21, 2019 at 7:09pm
By Jason Stettner

Between Two Ferns: The Movie is a Netflix Original film that expands the online comedy interview show, into a feature length presentation. This is a type of awkward comedy, that uses uncomfortable moments to provide some laughs. It does work quite well, and yes the actual interview portions of this movie are quite funny.

Zach Galifianakis stars as a stranger version of himself, and then he goes on the road with a core crew in order to chat with the big stars. Things haven’t gone well as he ends up killing Matthew McConaughey during an interview and this makes gangster edition of Will Ferrell force him to on a ten interview tour situation. There’s a bit of a side story going on, as you watch this man interact with his crew.

These parts aimed to add some more emotional context to the situations, but they weren’t exactly too amazing. They’re a fine, and needed gap yet don’t really deliver anything important as they slow out the comedic pacing being less funny. Not to say they’re bad segments, but just sort of typical and almost boring at times.

The acting was alright in this. I really liked the various celebrities that were present, there were some fun jabs and they deliver on the serious attitude. There’s this great sense of atmosphere from Galifianakis, he really does perform well between those two ferns.

It’s a very simple type of film, literally always with a black blanket screen and those ferns. There are some neat locations they visit, but the vast majority of this and most interesting parts were when interviews were being conducted. Honestly, the spots in-between were rather forgettable yet still need to make this more than just a stream of discussions.

The Conclusion

Between Two Ferns: The Movie has its strongest moments during the interviewing portions, whereas the other elements can be slightly boring. I felt that they delivered some really unique, and high class celebrities for these small bits. Again, Galifianakis absolutely nailed his strange persona that has brought some unique performances over the years. I’d also say that everyone that was given an interview, brought a good serious attitude that helped add to the laughs.

There will be some nice surprises in this, but don’t expect much between the core segments as the road trip itself was just a bit of a generic back story to provide a situation for why he was doing this sort of all-star tour edition of this tale of a time where folks discuss things between two ferns.

Between Two Ferns: The Movie Review at Home with Streamed Viewing
Screening was Provided by Netflix

Rating Overall: 6.7