For anyone who thinks that The Brie Larson project is solely about Brie Larson, well, you haven’t really been reading, have you? And who could blame you?
I recently streamed Zach Galifianakis’ Between Two Ferns: The Movie, only to realize after I started it that it featured a scene with Larson, so for anyone who thought I was just a creep, suck on that. This was fortuitous because not only was it a laugh-riot, but it gave me something to write about. If you haven’t seen Galifianakis’ pseudo-talk show of the same name, you’re missing out. If you have seen it and wonder how they made a whole movie out of that, let me remind you that they made two watchable Wayne’s World movies, so put your preconceived notions to bed.
Between Two Ferns: The Movie features Zach and his merry crew taking a road trip to obtain enough celebrity interviews to win themselves their own talk show on a real network (Well, Lifetime.) Larson is one of the celebs, along with Paul Rudd, David Letterman, John Hamm and Peter Dinklage, and a host of others, all people who are notably funny, or at the very least notable.
Not only did Larson’s inclusion bring me great joy because, well, it’s Brie Larson, but it also made me happy because it made me realize that she “gets it.” For those who haven’t seen the show, Galifianakis asks unbelievably uncomfortable questions of his guests, and only sometimes are the questions and responses written in advance. For example, he says to Paul Rudd, “Some people have it all. Looks. Talent. How does it feel to have only looks?” Even though I don’t know what is written in advance and what is ad-libbed, I’m thinking Rudd has the comedic chops to handle this kind of stuff. My favorite? After being asked about being a practicing Jew, Rudd responds, “No. I don’t practice. (pause) I perfected it.”
Confession time! As much of a fan of Larson as I am, I recently started to doubt if she had the ability to laugh at herself. Now, of course there is the possibility that her agent told her to take this part so that all the woman-hating loudmouths who got on her for saying she wanted more diversity among film critics would like her again. But I doubt that’s the case. Knowing the nature of the show, and Galifianakis being Galifianakis, the filmmakers probably approached her and she agreed, thinking it would be fun and literally take less than a day to shoot (Probably much like the show within the show.) I know that we should all stay away from clickbait and trolls and stuff, but it’s hard to not be influenced sometimes when there’s so much stuff out there. And let’s face it, she did say a lot of things that got people riled up (Wanting more diversity among movie critics is hardly controversial subject matter). No smart people got riled up, but people did. It was enough to make me wonder if she was in on the joke.
See, as much as people like to rag on Hollywood-types for their snobbery, I mostly find them to be a funny lot, and most of them, at least the persona that they put out there, seem like they can laugh at how ridiculous their lives are (They basically “play” for a living, much like my friends and I did in our backyards in the 80’s. And I was always Han Solo, by the way.) Another great example of this from Between Two Ferns is when Galifianakis asks John Hamm for a interview in the middle of an autograph signing, and despite the fact that Hamm has never heard of this show, he gets up from his table and goes off with Zach to record the show, because, “I do whatever I’m asked to do.”
Basically, I feel like anyone who agreed to be in this movie had to be in on the joke, because they all have to take a fair amount of abuse from Galifianakis, and most of them get to give it right back to him. Larson, for example, after Zach mentions how he thinks Marvel has given up because her character is named “Captain Marvel,” asks him if his super-hero name would be “Captain Crunch.” Classic. The funniest moments to me, however, are when Galifianakis asks obnoxious questions, and the celebrity fidgets uncomfortably in their chair. I can only imagine that this is what it is like for celebrities to sit in a chair all day while scores of “journalists” get paraded through their room to ask them the same dumb questions over and over. I mean, no wonder Larson asked for more diversity in that industry. She probably has to sit across from literally hundreds of white dudes on her media days.
Despite the fact that this is a Brie Larson column, and the fact that all of the interviews are incredibly amusing, for my money, none of them top the interview that Galifianakis has with Keanu Reeves. I have another confession; Reeves is an actor that I had zero respect for until fairly recently. Not really him as a person, because I hear he’s a really nice dude, and he has never been involved in any scandals or anything worse than Point Break. Now, of course, I enjoyed Bill & Ted’s, but after that I felt like he was really trying to be an actor (My Own Private Idaho, Dracula) while playing literally the same guy, which was essentially Ted. I won’t even get on him for Speed, because everyone has bills to pay, and at least he was smart enough to not do the sequel, but then he had to make THREE Matrix movies, which might have seemed cool at the time but have not aged all that well.
Now, somewhere in the last few years, it seems like Keanu looked in the mirror, and also looked at Liam Neeson, Vin Diesel and Robert Downey, Jr. and decided that he can make good money just playing Keanu Reeves, as long as he winks at the camera while doing it. and to me, nothing cements that wink more then an appearance in BTF: The Movie. Again, I don’t know what it written, or what is ad-libbed, but no one fidgets better than Keanu when Galifianakis asks him, on a scale of 1 to 100, how many words he knows. There’s no way that anyone can ask Keanu Reeves that question under any circumstance, unless Keanu knows that he has a reputation for being, as Galifianakis puts it, “a complete bozo.” Keanu definitely “gets it,” as I’m sure Brie Larson does, and everyone else who agreed to be in this movie. And that makes me feel good, because there’s nothing more awkward than someone who takes themselves too seriously.
So, check out Between Two Ferns on Netflix, but if you really want a little primer, here’s the full Keanu interview so you know what I mean.
mattdursin.com 