Between Two Ferns: The Movie

“You once said you’re your own worst critic. So you haven’t read any of your reviews?”

Zack Galifianakis

The nicest thing I can say about extending the absurdist, zero production value web-series of awkward celebrity interviews into a feature-length film is that it’s pointless. This should simply have been another series. For those unfamiliar, Zach Galifianakis (of The Hangover fame) would interview often A-list celebrities with barbed or inappropriate questions in a send-up of the pandering late-night television circuit. It’s hilarious, won an Emmy, and peaked insurmountably with Barack Obama. The movie strings together a series of new interviews under the loose guise of Will Ferrell (co-founder of the show’s original home on Funny or Die) offering Galifianakis a talk show if he films another clutch of episodes. There are numerous laugh out loud moments, but they all exist within the interview segments rather than the perfunctory scripted story in between, which takes up the bulk of the running time. This is no slight on the actors involved and it doesn’t ruin the experience, but it’s simply not what the audience wants. Even the interview outtakes at the end (with celebrities struggling to retain their composure) are funnier than the unnecessary padding, as is the deleted material in the extended Paul Rudd interview. Just give us those and be done with it.

6/10