Welcome to How Gay Is It? Out's review series where, using our state-of-the-art Eggplant Rating System, we determine just how queer some of pop culture's buzziest films and TV shows are! (Editor's note: this post contains spoilers for Will & Harper.)
If Americans watch one documentary this fall, I hope it's Will & Harper.
The new doc, premiering in select theaters on September 13 and on Netflix starting September 27, follows longtime best friends Will Ferrell and Harper Steele, who met when they both started working at Saturday Night Live the same week.
From SNL to Funny or Die and movies like Eurovision Song Contest, the two continued their friendship and work collaborations for decades. Then, during the pandemic, Harper sent Will an email telling him that she was coming out as a trans woman.
Directed by Josh Greenbaum (Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar), the doc follows shortly after that when Ferrell suggests the two of them go on a cross-country road trip together – something Harper used to love to do but is now reluctant following her transition. Throughout the film, Will and Harper get closer, Will learns what it's like to love a trans person, and Harper learns that more of the country loves people like her than she feared. It's a triumph of heart, progress, and camaraderie.
Netflix
Movies can hardly get more American than Will & Harper. It's a classic road trip film filled with small town locals, beautiful views, cans of Pringles, and Dunkin Donuts.
Will Ferrell is one of the most beloved actors and comedians in the country, with his movies like Anchorman, Elf, and Stranger Than Fiction.
When the bros who quote Talladega Nights every day see that their icon has a trans best friend, maybe they'll be more open to having a trans person in their lives.
Steele – who's comedy writing is also loved by millions, even if they don't know her name – is the quintessential Middle American. She's from a small town, loves dive bars, rodeos, and truck stops, and loves nothing more than spending time with this nation and the people that make it up.
Steele is exactly the kind of trans person that makes conservatives so terrified, and the kind who can change the mind of white voters across the country. Because she's one of them, she holds a mirror up to people in Red States and makes them realize that someone in their life, or even themselves, could one day be trans.
In an election year where one side is claiming that "illegal aliens" are getting "transgender surgery" in prison and kids are being groomed by trans adults into a life they'll surely regret, Steele is providing a loving face to trans issues, and it's one that looks a lot like the most vocal transphobes.
Even with her privilege – and Steele acknowledges it – she still faces an onslaught of hate when she's seen in public eating with Ferrell. She visits states where she is banned from using public restrooms. At one point, she sits quietly by while Will meets a governor who has passed anti-trans laws. Each time, Ferrell's heart breaks.
As Ferrell's eyes are opened to what it means to love a trans person, hopefully the audience's eyes will open as well.
Netflix
The dark spots are balanced by the film's humor and heart, and while I suspect you'll cry, you'll do plenty of laughing as well. These two joke back and forth only the way longtime friends and comedic geniuses can.
Some of the most powerful moments come when Ferrell cries in the film. He gets deeply vulnerable when he realizes that when he draws attention to the two of them, he's opening up Harper to online hate, and when he's asked to take a picture with a transphobic governor.
But perhaps the most powerful scene comes when Harper takes Will to a rundown house she bought off the grid some years ago.
It was her plan to move to this little house far away from everyone, leave her life behind, and become a recluse in order to be able to just dress how she wanted. She was willing to live in self-imposed exile for the rest of her life in order to be trans.
This is exactly what conservatives want, and here, it's laid out bare on screen so we can see just how horrific that fate it is.
Will & Harper is a powerful and deeply beautiful story about friendship, allyship, and love, and is the kind of documentary that can truly shift public opinion. It should be seen by as many people as possible, and hopefully, it will change many opinions and lives.
It also features an early favorite for Best Original Song in the theme song for the movie that SNL star Kristen Wiig writes for the two traveling buddies. Her song "Harper and Will Go West" is a folksy delight that fits the film perfectly.
Now, as only Out.com can ask: How gay is It?
Will & Harper does feature some exploration of Harper's sexuality after she comes out. In one scene, Will even asks her if she wants to start dating now that she's out, and Harper replies, yes, she's interested in people of any gender. 5 out of 5 stars and 4 out of 5 eggplants.
Will & Harper hits select theaters on September 13 and streams on Netflix starting September 27.
