Will & Harper is the trans film we need right now

The film is about Will Ferrell and newly transitioning best friend Harper Steele embarking on a roadtrip across America.

Will & Harper is a mostly light-hearted documentary about Will Ferrell and his close friend Harper Steele, who is beginning her gender affirmation journey. They embark on a cross-country road trip to process this together, revealing a film that is an intimate and heartfelt exploration of friendship, identity, and personal transformation.

The film succeeds in capturing the beautiful messiness that exists in the early trans experience. It humanises and makes light of the turbulent time that is early-transition for trans women, in a world where transgender women are often demonised for that very same messiness.

Will & Harper is full of fun moments and trans-centered comedy, which does admittedly sometimes border on the type of sexist comedy common in Ferrell’s era, but at no point does it feel meanspirited. It’s distinctly about two friends rediscovering their friendship amidst a big change in their dynamic.

Harper is very open about her transition throughout the film purely for the benefit of cis audiences. Which is a decision that many trans women make in early transition that does end up burning them. However, transgender women particularly will be relieved to know the film is free of many of the tropes of trans women in films — such as long scenes of applying makeup, and other such transmisogynist stereotypes.

Halfway through the film, things get tense in a Texas diner when Will engages in a publicised challenge to eat a giant steak in a limited amount of time. This draws significant attention to the pair, who are navigating through an unaccepting area of the country during the contentious 2024 US election cycle, where much attention has been unduly placed on transgender people.

After that event, Will is forced to confront the fact that he put his friend into an unsafe situation and did not have the foresight to avoid it.

The film remains entertaining even as a transgender or queer person who understands the complexities of living life queer. It has its share of blindspots as a work trying to capture the essence of living as a transgender person, but it is a heartfelt and real attempt by Ferrell at creating something that is honest to the trans experience.

The ending is a bit contrived, but what more can you ask from a film about a real friendship between two people? The story of Will & Harper is not over, and it was beautiful to watch a friendship be rekindled.

Will & Harper is streaming now on Netflix.

5 stars.