Everything Must Go

Will Ferrell takes a dramatic gig in this amusing story of a man who loses everything in a day due to his alcoholism. When his wife puts all of his belongings out on the front lawn and locks him out of the house, Nick (Ferrell) is forced to have a yard sale and purge all of his Earthly belongings, all the while chugging vast quantities of Pabst Blue Ribbon. On the edge of despair, the friendships of a neighborhood kid (Christopher Jordan Wallace, son of The Notorious B.I.G.) and a new neighbor across the street (Rebecca Hall) help to keep him grounded. Ferrell has real chops as a dramatic actor, and this film gives him a chance to show this (as he did in Stranger Than Fiction). He gets some laughs, but they aren’t of the slapstick variety. The movie is fairly standard stuff, but Ferrell’s work makes it very much worth seeing, and the supporting cast is strong. Laura Dern also appears as an old high school friend, as does Stephen Root as a neighbor with dirty secrets. Michael Peña is also good as Nick’s sponsor.