Will & Harper

I do not usually tend to watch that many documentaries. In fact, this will only be the second documentary that I have reviewed, but my father recommended Will & Harper to me, and I decided to give it a shot. Will & Harper released on Netflix in September, and it chronicles Will Ferrell and his old friend Harper Steele as they travel cross-country together from New York to Los Angeles.

Now, of course, everyone knows who Will Ferrell is, but not as many people know who Harper Steele is. That may be because, up until recently, Harper went by the name of Andrew Steele. Ferrell and Steele first met when Ferrell was a new cast member on Saturday Night Live and Steele was a staff writer. Steele worked on Saturday Night Live for 20 seasons and won an Emmy in 2002. She has written many movies, created the show Funny or Die Presents...., and was even featured as a writer for The Roast of Tom Brady. 

This documentary is more than just an entertaining story about two best friends who travel across the country together. While I was watching this, I kept thinking that everyone needs to see this. It really is a very important story about acceptance, but not just accepting others for who they are, but also accepting yourself for who YOU are. There is one scene in particular that stands out to me and it is when Harper meets a fellow trans woman. While the two are talking, the topic of voice feminization came up and the trans woman explains that at first, she tried it but then realized that she liked her voice the way it was. She realized that she was only trying to feminize her voice for others, not herself. 

Lastly, my favorite thing about this documentary is how real both Will and Harper got in it. I understand that of course this is a movie after all and there are certain aspects to it that are "Hollywoodized." There are other pieces of it, like how upset Will gets after a steak eating contest in Texas and it results in an unsafe environment for Harper, or when we read the various journal entries from Harper when she was in a really bad place.

I absolutely loved this movie and highly recommend checking it out on Netflix. It seems like a feel-good film about two best friends and their road trip, but it goes a lot deeper than that. What this film really is about is daring to be true to yourself and trusting those that you love to accept who you are. 

Thanks for reading!