Fern Turn

Between Two Ferns is a YouTube phenomenon where Zach Galifianakis does bizarre little interviews with real celebrities.  You wouldn't think you could adapt it to long-form, but they've given it a shot.  Thus, Between Two Ferns: The Movie, just dropped on Netflix.

To make a story of it, we go behind the scenes and re-contextualize the interviews.  It now turns out Between Two Ferns is a show hosted by an unknown named Zach Galifianakis at a North Carolina public access station.  He gets big-name celebrities because Will Ferrell (also fictionalized, but playing a big star) funnels his friends there--Ferrell thinks Zach is ridiculous and unaware, and enjoys watching the train wrecks that are his interviews.

The main action of the TV movie, for reasons too negligible to go into, has Zach and a small crew traveling cross-country to get ten interviews with celebrities. While the movie has fun moments, and the snippets of the interviews are the best parts, the filmmakers seem to (intentionally?) misunderstand the point of the original internet show.

More than once the Netflix movie makes it clear that Galifianakis is an idiot and the interviews are funny because people are laughing at what a fool he is.  This is not why the original bits worked.

Yes, Galifianakis was playing a jerkier version of himself, but what was funny was the deconstruction of the celebrity interview.  Instead of the sycophancy of most talk shows, Galifiankis is annoyed or bored with his guests and their tiresome, overblown celebrity.  The questions he asks are rude and well-targeted at his guests' weak spots.  The guests, of course, are in on the joke (sometimes quizzically putting up with it, sometimes fighting back).  I'm not sure why Netflix feels they've got to soften the blow.  Did they believe they needed to make Galifiankis more sympathetic if we're to follow him around an hour and a half--better a buffoon than a social critic?