Everything Must Go
Roadside Attractions | Release Date: May 13, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
25
Mixed:
12
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMay 12, 2011
Everything Must Go leaves the resolution open, not telegraphing Nick's future. It is as unsettled as life, and the film is all the better for it. Read full review
88
New York PostKyle SmithMay 13, 2011
Everything Must Go is cinematic pointilism. The big picture is familiar -- busted middle-age man, suburban alcoholic despair -- yet the details are so finely rendered that the overall impression is potently strange. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsMay 12, 2011
Ferrell's dryly understated performance is a shorthand for an alcoholic's denial and repressed rage, and as Nick grows increasingly desperate for a drink, he keeps his anger stashed like a last beer for emergencies. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaMay 12, 2011
This is an indie film with big stars - but also an indie films with big ideas about bringing real people to life. Read full review
88
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreMay 11, 2011
It's a bleak yet optimistic film, and Ferrell perfectly underplays his Carver anti-hero and delivers a rich, layered and subtle performance. And a funny one. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerMay 14, 2011
If there is a single image that we take away from Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman," it is of Willy Loman weighted down to his very soul by his suitcases. The image that holds in this modern-day salesman's serenade is Nick the salesman reduced to selling off his own life. Read full review
80
MovielineMichelle OrangeMay 12, 2011
Ferrell as Nick Halsey still feels like a fresh idea, a testament to the actor's reliable but rarely tested mettle as much as his long parade of post-2006 buffoons. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinMay 9, 2011
That lawn with its scraps of a ruined life is a setting both satirical and poignant, and Will Ferrell gives a performance of Chekhovian depth. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'HehirMay 9, 2011
It's refreshingly honest, depicts the kinds of American lives not often seen on-screen and shows us a familiar star in a striking new light. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMay 16, 2011
There are not a lot of laughs in Dan Rush's directorial debut, nor are there intended to be. Rush keeps the tone as light as possible, but no one would mistake this for anything other than a quirky, character-based drama. Read full review
75
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottMay 13, 2011
The movie is quietly affecting, as Rush offers a moving and rewarding yarn about the need to move on in the face of personal tragedy, and about the strength of human connections. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleMay 12, 2011
There are too many somber interludes with nothing going on but an acoustic guitar echoing over the soundtrack, the spareness of the score suggesting the emptiness of the characters' lives. Read full review
75
USA TodayScott BowlesMay 12, 2011
As he did in "Stranger Than Fiction," Ferrell displays surprising range when he ratchets down the volume. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertMay 12, 2011
At the end, I was expecting more of an emotional payoff; making a movie calm is one thing, and making it matter-of-fact is another. But make a note about Will Ferrell. There is depth there. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversMay 12, 2011
Ferrell delivers a performance of implosive intensity that rings true in every detail. Read full review
75
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallMay 11, 2011
It's a very good performance that isn't for the "Talladega Nights" crowd and indie audiences can appreciate that. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyMay 13, 2011
The cast Rush has assembled around Ferrell helps as well. There are tiny gems contributed by Laura Dern as the long-lost high school crush Nick looks up, and Stephen Root as a prickly neighbor with some unusual proclivities. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. ScottMay 12, 2011
Unlike its beer-soaked protagonist, Everything Must Go remains dry, serving up its catharsis in wry, moderate doses and making the most of its modest, careful virtues. It is a sober movie, but also sad and satisfying. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony LaneMay 12, 2011
The result is a sad suburban pastoral, a strain of film you don't see much of, or not enough; it may feel somewhat stretched, and Rush's additions to Carver barely push it past ninety minutes, but anything hectic or hasty would have spoiled the mood. [16 May 2011, p. 132]
70
TimeMary PolsMay 12, 2011
Ferrell fits uncannily well into Carver country, and in this small but sturdy film, he challenges any assumption that he might be limited to comedy. Certainly this is the first time he's moved me to tears that weren't produced by hard laughter. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovMay 12, 2011
Isn't a comedy, but it's not entirely a tragedy, either, and it straddles this razor's edge with a deeply nuanced aplomb. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumMay 11, 2011
Like Bill Murray and Greg Kinnear before him, this funnyman reveals serious acting chops. Read full review
67
IndieWireEric KohnMay 9, 2011
The material, however, takes a Raymond Carver short story and plays it almost too straight. Ferrell looks uncomfortable, but not amusingly so. Read full review
63
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanMay 12, 2011
If it sounds wholly bleak, it isn't. Remember, this is a movie about a yard sale. Over the course of the film, Nick struggles with the idea of, as he puts it, "selling all my crap" - he means that both literally and metaphorically - and getting on with his life. That sentiment, and Ferrell's refusal to sentimentalize it, is reason enough to smile. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsMay 12, 2011
The results go only so far. Yet already Ferrell has come a long way as a seriocomic screen presence. Read full review
60
VarietyPeter DebrugeMay 9, 2011
While the film is neither entertaining nor profound, Ferrell makes it watchable at least. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianMarc MohanMay 12, 2011
Whereas Carver writes about alcoholics, this movie is about alcoholism, which is completely different. Read full review
50
SlateDana StevensMay 14, 2011
If these developments sound slight and meandering, so is the movie. Everything Must Go has a spacious, under-inhabited feeling. Read full review
50
NPRIan BuckwalterMay 13, 2011
It's Rush who makes these characters push one another toward healing, and that feels forced. There are moments of poignancy, but mostly the film feels inert and unremarkable, an off-the-shelf indie-spiration fable that employs a manipulatively cruel twist to move the story away from its inherent darkness and toward an uplifting climactic montage. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternMay 12, 2011
From time to time the movie grabs you (though the music keeps repelling you). Taking stock and letting go-of superfluous things, of worn-out love-is a strong theme. But the progression of the script is like Nick's self-help program. We're familiar with the steps. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrMay 12, 2011
A comparison to Carver's original story - called "Why Don't You Dance?," easily Googleable, and all of 1,600 words long - is instructive. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayMay 12, 2011
Writer-director Dan Rush could've approached this material in dozens of ways, but the way he chooses-turning it into an occasionally wry, ever-earnest dramedy-is precisely the wrong one. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesMay 12, 2011
As the phlegmatic, beer-guzzling protagonist, Will Ferrell manages to keep this rolling, though Rush's corny narrative devices (each of the minor characters receives an ironic gift at the end) couldn't be less consistent with Carver's stubborn minimalism. Read full review
50
ObserverRex ReedMay 10, 2011
Everything Must Go is the one for the Gipper-the movie in which he steps out of character for his own sake and works hard to lose Will Ferrell. The results are mixed, but I admire the guy for making an effort. Read full review
50
Village VoiceJ. HobermanMay 10, 2011
Everything Must Go, which is ostensibly set in Scottsdale, Arizona, has a generic resemblance to broken-heartland movies like "Up in the Air" and "Cedar Rapids," although this suburban meltdown is more depressed than either. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttMay 9, 2011
The film just doesn't mine enough humor or drama from this situation. Meanwhile most of the developments are wholly predictable. Read full review
40
Time OutKeith UhlichMay 10, 2011
By the time Nick decides to have an emotionally purgative yard sale-the primary holdover from the short story-all the adult ambiguities have been traded in for facile Indiewood profundities. Read full review
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