Will & Harper

Will & Harper
Release poster
Directed by	Josh Greenbaum
Produced by	Jessica Elbaum Will Ferrell Josh Greenbaum Christopher Leggett Rafael Marmor
Starring	Will Ferrell Harper Steele
Cinematography	Zoë White
Edited by	Monique Zavistovski
Music by	Nathan Halpern
Production companies	Delirio Films Gloria Sanchez Productions Wayfarer Studios
Distributed by	Netflix
Release dates	January 22, 2024 (2024-01-22) (Sundance) September 13, 2024 (2024-09-13) (United States)
Running time	114 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Will & Harper is a 2024 American documentary film directed by Josh Greenbaum and following Will Ferrell and Harper Steele as the duo made a 17-day road trip across the United States, latter having recently completed a gender transition. It was produced by Jessica Elbaum, Ferrell, Greenbaum, Christopher Leggett, and Rafael Marmor.

Will & Harper premiered at the 40th Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2024, received a limited theatrical release in the United States on September 13, and began streaming worldwide on Netflix on September 27. It received positive reviews from critics.

Synopsis

Three years ago, Will Ferrell was filming a movie when he received a most surprising email: his dear friend of nearly 30 years was coming out to him as a trans woman. That friend was Harper Steele, a writer he met on his first day at Saturday Night Live back in 1995. From that fateful first meeting in the halls of 30 Rock, Will knew he had found a match made in comedy, and their friendship and creative partnership would only continue to grow over the next 3 decades.

Harper Steele is now divorced. She meets up with her two daughters at a restaurant before setting on a trip with Will Ferrell. They start in New York City, where they visit Studio 8H and have a reunion with SNL cast and alum Tina Fey, Seth Meyers, Colin Jost, Paula Pell, and Tim Meadows. Tim Meadows recalls receiving an email from Steele in which she opens up about being trans, which Meadows initially took as a joke based on what he knew about Steele's humor.

Following is a trip to Washington DC, and a stop at Beech Grove, Indiana. There, they attend an Indiana Pacers game where they encounter Eric Holcomb. Ironically, they hear an announcement that Governor Holcomb has signed into law a bill banning gender-affirming care for minors in Indiana in 2023. Additionally, they hear other reports of the 2020s anti-LGBTQ movement in the United States.

In Peoria, Illinois, they meet another woman Dana who has received gender-affirming care at a later stage of life like Harper Steele. Dana explains that she sought counseling to cope with the hardship of the mismatch between her own conception of her female gender and others who were telling her that she was male.

Their next stop is Meeker, Oklahoma. Next, they go to a steakhouse in Amarillo, Texas where the social media comments are revealed to be replete with profanities, mis-genderings, and prejudice against Harper. Will dressed as Sherlock Holmes in the hopes of getting a laugh out of the audience, but as an unintentional consequence also drew the attention to Harper and her trans identity. Though Ferrell now looks back on the encounter as being extremely transphobic, he was unable to resonate with Steele's fears in the moment.

Everyone crowds around Will Ferrell because of his worldwide fame.

In this intimate, honest, and heartfelt documentary, Will and Harper hit the open road together to process this new stage of their friendship and reintroduce Harper to the country that she loves – this time, as herself. Over 16 days, the two drive from New York to LA, visiting stops that are meaningful to them, to their friendship, and to America. Through laughter, tears, and many cans of Pringles, they push past their comfort zones as they re-examine their relationships to these spaces, and to each other, in this new light.

Cast

• Harper Steele
• Will Ferrell
• Kristen Wiig
• Will Forte
• Molly Shannon
• Tina Fey
• Lorne Michaels
• Seth Meyers
• Colin Jost
• Tim Meadows
• Paula Pell

Production

Comedian Will Ferrell and writer Harper Steele met at the American sketch comedy television program Saturday Night Live where Ferrell was a cast member for several years; they later co-wrote Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga. Steele reached out to Ferrell among other friends during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021 to inform them of her intention to go through gender transition. Steele said that "I should've made that decision 40 years ago. But I wouldn't have had you guys; I wouldn't have gotten hired [at Saturday Night Live]. I would have had a completely different life."

Ferrell helped produce the film, documenting a road trip the two subsequently took, alongside Jessica Elbaum, Christopher Leggett, and Rafael Marmor. The filmmakers initially considered deliberately creating comedic moments, but decided to let funny moments occur spontaneously instead.

Release

The film premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. In February 2024, Netflix acquired distribution rights to the film. It was also played at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 5, 2024.

Reception

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 99% of 90 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The website's consensus reads: "Endearing and heartfelt, Will & Harper is an ode and testament to long-lasting love, acceptance and evolution within a friendship." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 75 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

The New York Times critic Manohla Dargis called the film, "A Transcendent Road Trip," and summarized that, "A documentary about Will Ferrell and his friend Harper Steele brought the house down" at the Sundance Film Festival. At Collider, Taylor Gates rated this an 8 out of 10 and characterized it as a "must-watch", praising the principals' openness and the mixture of educational and entertainment elements, but critiquing the pacing. The Daily Beast's Kevin Fallon opined that this film will save lives for being "brave and characteristically unusual". Benjamin Lee of The Guardian rated this film 3 out of 5 stars, writing that "there are enough earned moments of piercing sadness and shaggy humour that those that feel more engineered can distract, the film trying to force itself into the structure of something it doesn’t need to be, pushing us away just after we’ve been pulled in close". Lovia Gyarkye of The Hollywood Reporter stated that the film "works because, at its core, the doc is a tribute to Ferrell and Steele’s evolving friendship" and that the pair's "level of honesty keeps the conversations grounded and helps the documentary avoid turning Steele into a prop for Ferrell’s education". Lauren Wissot of IndieWire graded this work a B−, stating that the narrative is "admirable and understandable" but "trapped in a mushy middle state, forever prevented from rising to the level of either great drama or great comedy".

In a capsule review out of Sundance, Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com praised Greenbaum's direction and continued that the film shows "a pure, true companionship here that should serve as a reminder to call that person in your life who might need someone to talk to". In Rolling Stone David Fear called Will & Harper "a portrait of a friendship and how the fundamentals of a deep and lasting bond doesn’t change even when the people within it do" that is "flawed" but "priceless". Writing for United Press International, Fred Topel ended his review calling this "a touching journey with two friends sharing laughs that can help start more conversations amongst people Steele and Ferrell will never meet". Peter Debruge of Variety wrote that "It can sound like a cliché to say that any given movie is what the world needs now, but Will & Harper earns that distinction. Struggling to recognize her own beauty in a society that often seems determined to deny her identity altogether, Steele brings the trans experience down to earth. Meanwhile, by accepting his fledgling gal pal on her own terms—and asking how to make her more comfortable in her own skin—Ferrell sets the best kind of example. We should all be so lucky as to have friends like these." Bilge Ebiri of Vulture ended his review: "The film’s familiarity may well be part of its design. It clearly wants to help change hearts and minds, and find purchase with audiences that would otherwise avoid a movie with a subject like this."

Accolades

Award	Date	Category	Recipient	Result	Ref.
Toronto International Film Festival	September 15, 2024	People's Choice Award: Documentaries	Will & Harper	Runner-up
Critics' Choice Documentary Awards	November 10, 2024	Best Documentary Feature	Will & Harper	Won
		Best Director	Josh Greenbaum	Nominated
		Best Score	Nathan Halpern	Nominated
		Best Cinematography	Zoë White	Nominated
Hollywood Music in Media Awards	November 20, 2024	Best Original Score – Documentary	Nathan Halpern	Pending
		Best Original Song – Documentary	Sean Douglas, Kristen Wiig & Josh Greenbaum ("Harper and Will Go West")	Pending
Cinema Eye Honors	January 9, 2024	Audience Choize Prize	Will & Harper	Pending
		The Unforgettables	Harper Steele	Won

External links

• Will & Harper at IMDb