Will Farrell is a comedian I haven’t always liked. He wasn’t my favorite performer during his era of SNL either. He just has been that great, especially over the last ten years or so. I went into Will & Harper with a lot of trepidation.  A road trip documentary wasn’t exactly my thing, but once I saw it I was completely moved by it. It’s a touching and very poignant story of a beautiful friendship.  This is one of the best documentaries I’ve seen all year.

Will has been friends with Harper Steele for 30 years. They started at SNL together and have been friends ever since. After a long time thinking about and wanting to do so, Harper decides to embrace her feminist side and transition. She breaks the news to her long-time friend and they decide to go on a road trip across the country to see how she is treated by America. Trans people are still trying to be recognized in America and around the world as true citizens and treated as equals.

This documentary is different from a lot of other docs. It Follows these two people on their trip around the country. From Staatsburg, New York to Washington DC, to Indiana, Iowa, Texas, Oklahoma, and eventually California. On the trip these two longtime friends rediscover themselves. They get to know each other in ways they hadn’t before. One of the things they do is just sit in fold-out chairs, drink cheap beer and eat Pringles. They do this about 4 or so times during the film. 

On the trip, the pair of friends meet a variety of people. Some family members such as Harper’s sister Eleanor, said when she found out her brother was transitioning “I Always Wanted A Sister”. They also sang a Karaoke song from Sonny & Cher  “I Got You Babe”. They went into a strange biker bar and just made friends with everybody. My favorite place they went to was a restaurant where Will had to eat a giant steak in an hour. That steak looked good. One other scene I loved was a back-and-forth of Will & Harper at a tribute store picking out a dress and at a costume store picking out a disguise.  This was hilarious. 

With both of these people being a big part of SNL in the 2000’s you know that the SNL cameos were going to pop up and they did, sometimes unexpectedly. They met Will Forte in New Mexico and had dinner before they left New York with a few of the old cast members including Seth Meyers, Tim Meadows, and some others. They met Molly Shannon at a nail salon in California, but the best SNL cameo was when they asked Kristen Wig to write them a song. She performs the “Will & Harper” song in the credits after not getting back to them previously when they tried reaching out to her. It’s one of the best original songs I’ve heard in any film thus far this year.

I’ve had my fair share of friendships in my day. I’ve even gone on road trips with some of them. Nothing like the road trip depicted in this documentary film by filmmaker Josh Greenbaum. This is one of the sweetest, most touching, and poignant things I’ve seen all year. The true love these two people have for one another is off the charts. If the majority of America could have this kind of understanding and compassion for someone different from themselves this country would be a much better place. I was literally crying my eyes out at the end of this film. It made me second-think about a lot of the friendships and relationships I’ve had in recent memory. All I wanted to do was call everyone up and thank them for being my friend. It affected me quite a bit.

Will & Harper is just a documentary film, but it’ll make you laugh, cry, and everything in between. If the world could see this movie and see how these two people loved one another as friends no matter their differences they would change something about their own lives. I was an emotional wreck at the end of this documentary.  It’s one of the best films I’ve seen all year and the SNL cameos were fantastic, but the song sung by Kristen Wig at the end was the cherry on top of the sundae. I absolutely loved this movie in more ways than I could possibly say in this review. Everyone needs to see this documentary as soon as possible.

5 stars

Dan Skip Allen