Everything Must Go stars Will Ferrell as a newly unemployed, newly abandoned alcoholic who has hit the bottom.
He is reduced to living illegally on his front lawn surrounded by the detritus of his former life, continously sucking back beers and wondering what happened. He lost his job, wife, car and self respect on the same sad day, and he’s reduced to standing guard over his junk, as though it really mattered.
It has a creepy resonance to many people hurt by the recession, working people made homeless and tossed to the edges of society. Ferrell says the film is appropriate for the times.
“We’ve heard that from a lot of people who have seen the movie, that it feels right for what everyone’s going through right now. Not to go too deep, but I watch the movie and say, ‘It’s a real statement on consumerism.’ We’re conditioned to think that we need all this stuff.”
Ferrell’s character is a hoarder who keeps worthless objects that have some kind of magical hold over him or are reminders of past happiness. He seems to be an example of the modern sickness bred by the consumerist money-driven society North Americans live in.
“I was just watching the news and they were saying that Americans are saving more than they ever have,” Ferrell said. “Their savings are back up because everyone was so criticized for not cutting up their credit cards and having horrible debt.
“Savings have shot up which is supposed to be a good thing, but consumer spending is down. And they’re saying ‘What are we going to do to get consumer spending back up?’ and I wonder when this awful cycle is going to end?
“Why is it up to us to save the economy? Can’t everyone just get along? So maybe that’s what the movie is about,” he adds.
