An exercise in active empathy, Will & Harper is a road-trip documentary following Will Ferrell and comedy writer Harper Steele from New York City to Los Angeles. After a decades-long relationship as collaborators and friends, Harper came out as a trans woman in 2021—a reality Ferrell tries to process in real time, alongside Harper, as the miles roll by. As someone still learning about the trans experience myself, I’m grateful to Harper for being so vulnerable—not only in conversation with Ferrell (“When I said it, my whole body went warm,” Harper notes about choosing her new name), but also in the positions she puts herself for the purposes of the doc (the hate she receives after a stop at a Texas steak joint is harrowing). As for Ferrell, I can only hope to emulate the openness and genuine enthusiasm with which he asks, very early on: “OK, where do we go from here?” Overall, this is genuinely moving and instructive, though I do wish it was a wee bit funnier, considering the onscreen talent and the fact that director Josh Greenbaum guided the sublimely silly Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar.
(9/20/2024)
