Film review: Will & Harper is as pragmatic as it is uplifting

This documentary is an emotional rollercoaster that delivers laughs and tears

Will Ferrell and Harper Steele in Will & Harper (2024)

• Will & Harper
• ★★★★☆
• Cinematic release

Will & Harper (15A) is a documentary in which Will Ferrell takes a road-trip with Harper Steele, his friend and collaborator on Saturday Night Live for almost 30 years.

Living as Andrew Steele, Harper loved taking road-trips across America; having transitioned to a woman, she now wonders if the America she loves still loves her.

And so Will and Harper drive from New York into the heartland of Indiana and Iowa and on into Texas, stopping off at the Walmarts, biker bars, and diners that Harper has previously patronised, all the while discussing the minutiae — emotional, physical, and psychological — of Harper’s experience.

It’s an emotional rollercoaster that delivers laughs and tears, along with profound insights into human nature, friendship and the price (and worth) of living one’s truth, as the pair penetrate ever further into conservative America.

It’s by no means a smooth ride, and Harper is the first to acknowledge that she is unusually privileged to be coming out to the world with Will Ferrell riding shotgun, but for the most part, Will & Harper is as pragmatic as it is uplifting.