the trip movie 2022

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Trip - movie review.

“We are therapists.  Nuts are our specialty.”

This is what despair looks like.  It is cold and hollow, freezing its victims to the very core of their being.  For one mother, it is her daughter’s unnatural suicide which invites this unwelcome visitor in, and she can’t seem to shake its grip.  No bottle.  No pill.  No tear is ever enough to escape the feeling of dread and aloneness in the wake of her daughter killing herself.

Welcome to the Trip .  This movie won’t soon be forgotten.  With heavy themes and a stand-out performance from Last Girl Standing ’s Akasha Villalobos as Ally, the grieving mother, Trip is definitely worth checking out.

Desperate for answers to why Samantha ( Jill Young ) gouged out her own eyeballs, Ally finds herself unable to cope or even return to work.  While her clients are being farmed out to others, she sits alone in her house crying her eyes out.  But an adventurous therapist, Jan Rollins ( Peggy Schott ), has a better idea for Ally.

With the help of a hallucinogenic drug - in the form of tea - Ally can see her daughter again. But is she brave enough to walk through that door?  Because, once it is opened, the door can never be closed again.  

Memories aren’t the only thing wandering these dark nightmarish halls.  Much to the chagrin of Michael ( Major Dodge ), Ally’s husband.  She’s gone, he yells at her.  Yet, still Ally pursues the ghosts she sees in and around the house.  All of them - even the frightening ones wearing masks, but just what is actually happening is anybody’s guess.  

From writer/director Neil McCay and starring “Chucky” star Björgvin Arnarson, Trip is an independent horror film that hits a confident stride in spite of its budgetary limitations and proves to be unsettling, thanks to a great sound design, a solid handling of grief, and an assortment of ghostly images which often had the hair on the back of my neck rising in response to their flickering mannerisms.  They are solidly put together and offer a creative way to handle a microbudget.  

Ally’s search for answers is going to lead her straight into a web of mystery as the same things that haunted her daughter start to fill her own head.  Just what is going on with these identical experiences?  

Sorrow and despair are the villains in the frightening Trip , on Terror Films AVOD Channel Friday, May 13th before a wide digital release on Friday May 20.  While it might be made for the indie-going crowd out there, this one packs a lot of solid scares along the way.

MPAA Rating: Unrated Runtime: 94 mins Director : Neil McCay Writer: Neil McCay Cast: Akasha Villalobos; Major Dodge; Peggy Schott Genre : Horror Tagline: Give Me Your Eyes. Memorable Movie Quote: Distributor: Terror Films AVOD Channel Official Site: Release Date: May 13, 2022 DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: Synopsis :Following her daughter’s suicide, a grief-stricken mother is visited by an unconventional therapist who offers a hallucinogenic drug that will allow communion with the dead. Desperate to understand her daughter's psyche she accepts the offer, and soon finds herself terrorized by her daughter's identical experiences.

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Tommy Wirkola

Noomi Rapace

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The Trip (2021)

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I onde dager.

Directed by Tommy Wirkola

Til Death Do Us Part

A dysfunctional couple head to a remote lakeside cabin under the guise of reconnecting, but each has secret designs to kill the other. Before they can carry out their respective plans, unexpected visitors arrive and the couple is faced with a greater danger than anything they could have plotted.

Noomi Rapace Aksel Hennie Atle Antonsen Christian Rubeck André Eriksen Nils Ole Oftebro Stig Frode Henriksen Tor Erik Gunstrøm Selome Emnetu Galvan Mehidi Evy Kasseth Røsten Harald Dal Ask Sørsdahl Jeppe Beck Laursen Kristoffer Jørgensen Jonas Hoff Oftebro Fredrik Skavlan Sturla Dyregrov Ailo Gaup J.V. Martin

Director Director

Tommy Wirkola

Producers Producers

Jørgen Storm Rosenberg Kjetil Omberg

Writers Writers

John Niven Tommy Wirkola Nick Ball

Editor Editor

Patrick Larsgaard

Cinematography Cinematography

Matthew Weston

Assistant Directors Asst. Directors

Matthew Cooper Laura Ugolini

Executive Producers Exec. Producers

Aram Tertzakian Nick Spicer

Production Design Production Design

Joseph Hodges

Art Direction Art Direction

Maria Ducasse

Visual Effects Visual Effects

Bryan Jones

Stunts Stunts

Kristoffer Jørgensen

Composer Composer

Christian Wibe

Sound Sound

Marius Paus Brovold Tormod Ringnes Baard H. Ingebretsen Pål Baglo

Costume Design Costume Design

Oddfrid Ropstad

Makeup Makeup

Davide Losi

74 Entertainment XYZ Films

Primary Language

Spoken languages.

English Norwegian Swedish

Releases by Date

26 sep 2021, 30 jul 2021, 15 oct 2021, 20 oct 2021, 22 jan 2022, releases by country.

• Digital Netflix
• Digital 18 Netflix
• Digital 10 VOD
• Physical DVD & Blu-Ray
• Digital 16 MyCanal
• Digital 16+ Netflix

Netherlands

• Digital 16 Netflix
• Theatrical 15

Philippines

• Theatrical 18
• Digital R21 Netflix

South Korea

• Digital 15 Netflix
• Digital 18+ Netflix
• Premiere Fantastic Fest

United Arab Emirates

115 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by Rafael "Parker!!" Jovine ★★★

In terms of black comedies, I personally believe that being too effective, especially in terms of performances, is the worst thing one could do. Taking this path often detracts from the experience.

Indeed, while most of the cast, from our criminals to Noomi, delivered excellent performances, whether it was a bitter wife or a bimbo neo-Nazi, the biggest reason I couldn't stand most of the film was because of Aksel Hennie who was simply an unbearable piece of shit for most of the movie, which made me root for the baddies throughout the film. And you know are a complete dipshit where you have me, a Jew descendant, rooting for an apparent Neo-nazi instead of you.

As for the story…

Review by King #adoptdontshop ★★★½

Good chaos!

The Trip is a twisty, hilarious, and entertaining movie about a couple's hijacked plan to kill each other. Noomi Rapace and Aksel Hennie as warring wife and husband sold their characters well, bringing us the strains of a crumbling marriage with comical, macabre ease. These actors are supported by villains who seemed to be having a blast filming too. The Trip 's turns gets better and better with each passing detail using A-form script, witty dialogue, inventive storytelling and constant energetic atmosphere. Tommy Wikola should also be commended for his committed direction; maximizing the location, the witty dialogue and the rambunctious climax to its full effect. A black comedy-thriller that's gory, bloody and gruesome without the eek factor,  The Trip is a trip worth taking.

Review by Kevflix And Chill ★★★ 1

#SlasherSaturday For some reason, I did not place that this was Noomi Rapace in the lead until just now when I was writing this. Perhaps because I watched the English dub and it wasn’t actually her voice I was hearing. This was a really fun watch, though. Tommy Wirkola brings the violence and there’s a good amount of pretty hilarious dialogue too. Appreciate the pick because I’m still lagging behind on watching more of Wirkola’s work. Probably about time to watch Violent Night again. 

Degrees of Kevin Bacon: 2 1. Noomi Rapace and Joel Edgerton in Bright 2. Joel Edgerton and Kevin Bacon in Black Mass

Review by haley ★★★½ 1

i really had no idea what to expect with this one, but i loved it. it definitely felt a bit awkward at first, but once things really got going, it had my full attention. this was such a fun comedic thriller/horror film with plenty of violence and a brilliant ending. them constantly leaving weapons on the ground drove me crazy though.

Review by bombsfall ★★★½ 1

One of the better fjord-centric climaxes I have seen in a movie. Fjans of fjords will fjind a lot to like here.

Review by JBird ★★★½

Sometimes love is a bit static, As a couple moves toward the dramatic. A weekend away, Will go astray, From the basement up to the attic.

Review by Mister Cap ★★★½ 4

"The Trip" ist ein wirklich wilder Ritt, bei dem Rückblenden dauernd die zentrale Handlung unterbrechen, nur damit man versteht, was gerade jetzt passiert.

Es ist ein cleverer Trick, den das Skript mehrmals verwendet und er bleibt auch bis zum letzten Aufguss faszinierend, da er ständig eine weitere Ebene hinzufügt, gerade wenn wir glauben, die Richtung des Films zu kennen.

Neben den wirklich sehr blutigen Gewaltexzessen, ist der pechschwarze, clevere Humor, vor allem nachdem er die Furz und Scheiße Phase hinter sich gebracht hat, besonders markant und hat mich an manchen Stellen laut lachen lassen.

Ich fand es toll, dass die beiden Hauptfiguren, Lisa und Lars (Noomi Rapace und Aksel Hennie) nach anfänglichen "Unstimmigkeiten", gezwungen waren, sich wieder zusammen zu raufen…

Review by Robert E. Acuña ★★½ 2

When they do the American remake I hope it's just a sequel to 'Marriage Story' but with guns and gore. That way the " Adam Driver Prophecy " can be fulfilled.

'The Trip' or 'In Bad Times' is a film that takes its wacky premise way too seriously. Like this is some 'Home Alone' type shit and they are treating it with so much unnecessary respect.

Noomi Rapace and Aksel Hennie give really great performances. When the film leans into the goofiness they excel flawlessly.

But this film struggles the minute the 3 convicts show up. It gets so serious that the humor becomes jarring when it returns. 'Ready or Not' did this same idea but kept it funny all throughout and was better for it.

This just didn't click for me as I had hoped.

Review by Big Rig ★★★

It’s always a pleasant surprise to come across a Netflix film that I thoroughly enjoy, and The Trip is one such film.

Wirkola and his cast are 100% committed to this film, which really shines through in the final product. The film understands its roots, and exploits them to create a film that is as funny as it is dark, and as fun as it is horrifying. My only really issue is that there were some jarring tonal discrepancies within these differing styles. The darkly comedic exchanges and situations are brilliant, but are stitched between terribly nihilistic themes which, although interesting in their own way, seem misplaced.

Despite its flaws, The Trip deserves to stand alongside Wirkola’s Dead Snow (and perhaps unlike Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters…).

Review by aswin rayendra ★★★½

Such a gem to be found in Netflix.. And what a family bonding movie it is all about! Better to go into the movie blind without reading any synopsis about it and you'll get a gory, energetic, with a pinch of Tarantino-esque black comedy thriller and it's just so much fun, maybe the bloodiest thing I've ever seen from some of the releases this year. Noomi Rapace and Aksel Hennie also led the movie brilliantly. My main gripe is that it has kind of TV-movie picture looking quality into it, but it's still worth your time to watch.

Review by Zay ★★★★½ 2

The Trip is a bonkers Norwegian black comedy full of bloody comical shenanigans. Similar to last year's Russian Why Don't You Just Die! A couple goes up to a cabin for a seemingly peaceful weekend that turns out to be anything but. Double crosses, shotgun blasts, quirky characters, and toxic relationships make this one of the most entertaining films of the year!

*Available via Netflix*

Review by Lynn Betts ★★★½ 8

# SlasherSaturday finally up-to-date for my first anniversary! Thanks to my fellow slash monkeys: you've been a real lifeline to me over the past year!

And now, for THE TRIP (pick for Dec 2):

Noomi Rapace and Scandanavian yuppie slashing? Where do I sign up?

I know not all foreign films need reboots or remakes - and of course not as quickly as the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series - but may I suggest Margot Robbie and Bill Burr for the Hollywood version?

That married couple... everyone knows a married couple like this, with whom you wouldn't be surprised if something twisted and sordid went down between them.

No real innocents here, so it's fun to see them gorily duke it out.

PS: A HUNDRED UNSEEN HORRORS #19

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• #125 Best Movies from 2021 (no animation films)
• #145 Best Movies of 2021
• "The Trip is a wild, zany ride that Wirkola and his cast are 100% committed to (...) you’ll want to take this trip (...) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 5)"  Trace Thurman : Bloody Disgusting
• "'The Trip' is occasionally fun, but other films have handled gleeful gore and psychological torture with a far more skillful touch"  Lena Wilson : The New York Times
• "Despite all the violence and blood, Wirkola still views Lisa and Lars with empathy (...) A pitch-black comedy that will satisfy action and horror fans (…) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 5)"  Audra Schroeder : The Daily Dot
• "Cheeky and inventive in equal measure, with brilliant performances all around, a whipsmart script and sharp pacing make 'The Trip' one of the most fun watches of the year"  Jude Dry : IndieWire
• "With The Trip featuring a marriage in crisis, the acting is on top form with moments that work well for its dark comedy approach. As a whole, though, there’s little to remember in this Norweigian film (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"  Jordan Russell Lyon : Ready Steady Cut
• "It’s extremely violent and bloody but also with very funny and weird moments. Tarantino craziness dialed into a Nordic twist. Hell, this is better than Tarantino (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"  Karina Adelgaard : Heaven of Horror
• "Frequently funny, often hilarious, always clever and smart, and dependent entirely on the superb performances by Rapace and Hennie"  Peter Martin : Screen Anarchy

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Will & Harper is a revelatory road-trip movie and an unassuming political project

Will Ferrell, left, and Harper Steele in the documentary Will & Harper. Courtesy of Netflix/Netflix

There’s an illuminating scene in Josh Greenbaum’s new documentary Will & Harper where the director’s titular subjects, former Saturday Night Live head writer Harper Steele and star Will Ferrell, sit across from each other in a swanky Las Vegas restaurant. Long-time friends ever since they both began working at SNL in 1995, the pair have decided to paint the town red.

The only problem is that, while Harper is radiant in a simple, yet tasteful black dress and matching heels, Will – continuing a decades-long bit between the friends wherein each of them try to make the other laugh by showing up in costume unannounced – is no longer Will. He is, instead, the man now known as David Abernathy.

Decked out in a loudly patterned bomber jacket and ominous gold amulet, Will a.k.a. David has topped off his bizarre ensemble with a short, dark brown bobbed wig, gaudy wrap-around sunglasses, and a Fu Manchu mustache in an attempt to go out into the world incognito. The gag is initially appreciated by Harper, who is equally aghast and enchanted by the deranged look, but as the friends continue their night out, the stark reality of how each of them moves through public space quickly soon breaks the humorous spell.

It’s a revelatory moment that arrives at the beginning of the end of the duo’s cross-country road trip, a journey which began in 2022 when Harper, a lifelong lover of road trips and all things Americana, came out to her loved ones as a trans woman at the age of 61. “Will responded quickly, appropriately, and with love,” Harper says during an interview ahead of the film’s premiere at the Toronto International Film festival.

In the wake of this hugely transformative moment for the former Funny or Die creative director, the idea of filming herself and Ferrell taking part in a road trip from New York to Los Angeles took Harper some time to adapt to.

“I don’t like being on camera – I’m less nervous, obviously, about it now; but at the time, I really didn’t want to do it,” the Iowa-born-and-raised Harper shares. “I had to come around to the idea. I really ruminated on the possibilities of what it could do – not just for me personally, but for so many other trans people. And Will is a great vector for that work having [non-trans people] come to understand our issues.”

“Also,” Ferrell chimes in, “we were hoping to stop at a lot of waffle houses.”

Just as they do in Will & Harper , Steele and Ferrell spend much of their interview time together jumping from serious discussion to playful banter, a shared trait that Greenbaum says was a key development in their relationship during filming.

“Early on in the filming process, if ever things got too uncomfortable for them, they would fill that uncomfortable silence with jokes – as comedians, their love language is comedy,” he says. “So at one point, I had to pull them both aside and give them my greatest tip as a documentarian, which is to ask a question and then shut up and listen.”

That ability to remain both curious and vulnerable is what underscores both the spirit and impact of the conversations that Steele and Ferrell have on screen.

“Harper was so clear about welcoming any question,” says Ferrell. “She made me feel safe to bumble and stumble around and have any sort of dialogue that I wanted to broach. That took the pressure off, in a way. The only negative thing that comes to mind when I watch the movie back is that night out in Vegas where I concocted that ridiculous outfit. That’s the one moment where I thought, ‘Maybe this is too much?’”

It’s a sobering moment where Will’s commitment to the bit brings unintended attention to Harper who, as a clockable trans woman, is often made to endure the urgent reality of gendered violence that comes with such hypervisibility. Without fail, Ferrell’s disguise is so over the top that it only works to further out his celebrity presence in the restaurant, a fact which results in an onslaught of transphobic tweets targeting Steele.

Indeed, many of the film’s most poignant scenes witness the ways that Will and Harper are circumscribed in various social spaces, from dive bars to basketball games to small town diners. Prior to coming out, Harper had journeyed across America hundreds of times, but, with Will & Harper, she took part in her first ever road trip after transitioning.

“I was very conscious of that reality of Harper’s experience – that constant threat assessment. Sometimes it’s louder, sometimes it’s quieter, but it’s always there,” Greenbaum says. “I realized that I was taking for granted the safety of what, to me, were very normal, neutral spaces. It was illuminating for both me and Will.”

Referring back to Will’s Vegas gaffe, Harper emphasizes, “It was funny. There’s this perception that all trans people are strident and angry that completely ignores all of the joyful aspects of being trans. I’m hoping the movie conveys that reality. Absolutely, I can be strident, but I’m still gonna be funny.”

Balancing those tonal truths during a road trip which included several stops in conservative states – including those with current anti-trans legislation and even encounters with the very governors at their helm – is no small feat.

“One thing we came to understand with this film,” Greenbaum says, “is the reality of the truism, ‘It’s hard to hate up close.’ Harper and I were both pleasantly surprised that we were met by people across America with, at best, love, and, at worst, apathy, which – considering the very real dangers that trans women face – is not all that bad. That said, we can’t be Pollyanna-ish about it – there’s still a lot of work to be done.”

Greenbaum’s sentiments speak well to the graceful and tender nature of Will & Harper and its unassuming political project. Its heart, no doubt, lies not just in Ferrell’s high-profile allyship, but also undoubtedly in Steele’s ability to disarm viewers with her pointed wit and down-to-earth approach to the world around her.

“It’s almost like therapy,” she says. “It’s an unfolding. The goalposts for comfort change as you move further into the process – I probably wasn’t as forthcoming at the beginning of filming as I was as we went on. In general, after having come out, I feel like I don’t really have any secrets anymore.”

Will interjects, offering, “You carried a steamer trunk with your secrets in it with you for so long.”

Nodding in agreement, Harper adds, “I think everyone likes to hold onto those things that they’re uncomfortable with or that they’re afraid of. But once Will and I committed ourselves to being honest about those things, we were completely in.”

Will & Harper is available to stream on Netflix starting Sept. 27.

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The Trip (2021)

TV-MA | Action, Comedy, Horror, Thriller

The trans 'Will & Grace' is here, and it's a Netflix road movie starring Will Ferrell

Will Ferrell is building up a head of steam.

Seated in the nondescript hotel conference room that's been seized for our interview — a setting that lends our conversation the air of "Between Two Ferns" — the actor has taken up the subject of transphobia in Hollywood films like "Ace Ventura" and is running with it.

"The entertainment culture has taught us to have a flippant attitude that trans people aren't real people," Ferrell says. "It's silly. It's make-believe. Obviously, we're getting closer to educating everyone—"

"Are we?" his friend, former "Saturday Night Live" colleague and now road-movie co-star Harper Steele interrupts, stopping him hilariously short. Her deadpan is laced with the ring of truth.

This is the animating question of their new documentary, "Will & Harper," which follows the pair on a cross-country road trip as they unpack Steele's 2022 coming out as a trans woman. Along the way, Ferrell and Steele meet Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, a supporter of anti-trans legislation; connect with the trans community in Peoria, Ill.; suffer hateful trolling in Texas; and experience the unexpectedly warm embrace of dive bar patrons in Oklahoma. Within the structure of an absurdist buddy comedy from the goofballs who brought you "SNL" sketches like "Oops! I Crapped My Pants" and "More Cowbell," the film, launching Friday on Netflix, offers one of American pop culture's most successful portraits to date of the contemporary trans experience — unafraid to answer "all the questions you're not supposed to ask trans people."

You might even call "Will & Harper" the trans "Will & Grace."

"The impact that a sitcom like 'Will & Grace' had for the queer community, gay community, is massive," says the film's director, Josh Greenbaum. "It's certainly not what we would call high art, but it speaks a little bit to something we were striving for with our film. I love the expression that laughter is the shortest distance between two people. I'm a big believer in it. We talked about making sure that our film was funny and accessible and an easy on-ramp."

As with NBC's landmark sitcom, though — praised by then-Vice President Joe Biden for doing "more to educate the American public than almost anything anybody’s ever done," but panned by some LGBTQ+ observers for oversimplifying queer identity for straight viewers — this spoonful-of-sugar approach cuts both ways. For Steele, who admits that she loves an "aggressive approach" when it comes to discussing trans rights, " 'normalizing' is a reductive word that puts queer people in a place. It makes me feel like the goal is gay marriage, not generalized liberation."

"Will & Harper's" ability to walk a fine line between being edifying and didactic, entertaining and superficial, is woven into its very structure, with its stars' connection deepening by degrees until they reach the Mojave Desert town of Trona, where Steele, in a shattering moment, reveals the depths of her past self-hatred. At every juncture, it threatens to leave important stones unturned, vital context unaddressed — and at every juncture, instead, it confronts the viewer's skepticism head-on.

Not that they planned it that way. Jettisoning an early idea to build the film around comedy bits, Ferrell, Steele and Greenbaum found themselves subject to the vagaries of nonfiction storytelling, and thereby stumbled into the journey's most bracing scenes. They did not expect, for instance, that a gag involving Ferrell trying to eat a 72-ounce steak in under an hour at a Texas steakhouse would expose him and Steele to uncomfortable leering from the other patrons and a subsequent flurry of social media abuse. Nor did they know that Holcomb would be at a Pacers game they attended in Indianapolis, where the governor and Ferrell were introduced courtside — leading to an on-camera reckoning for the actor about the rudiments of effective allyship.

"If we were in a moment like that again, I wouldn't hesitate to [ask], 'By the way, what are your views?' " says Ferrell. "Just because I'm OK with poking the bear a little bit more. Especially if I had some knowledge going in. Literally last night at dinner, the waiter misgendered [Steele]. He said, 'Hello, gentlemen.' And I said, 'Nope.' ... That's now how I react because it feels natural."

Our conversation, ahead of the film's Toronto International Film Festival screening, takes place the morning after the presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump, in which Trump raised the specter of "transgender operations on illegal aliens in prison." ("That feels like a line written in an 'SNL' sketch," Ferrell quips.) But politicians' and pundits' use of transgender people as a scapegoat would not be possible without their historical mistreatment, or outright erasure, in popular culture . As for the roughly 60% of Americans who do not know a trans person, according to Pew , "Will & Harper" hopes to be an introduction: "Now you know Harper," Greenbaum says.

Such positive messages will compete for attention against transphobic rhetoric from high-profile figures such as Dave Chappelle and Ricky Gervais, even on the same platform. (Netflix, which is releasing "Will & Harper," is also home to numerous projects by the firebrand comedians in which trans people are treated as the butt of the joke.) But Steele refuses to take their comments seriously — or bend her own creative process simply to combat them.

"When egos get hurt, people troll," she says. "And I'm looking at a lot of these people and they're enjoying the trolling." She hopes Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, Olympic gold medalist in women's welterweight, "sues the s— out of J.K. Rowling" over tweets in which the "Harry Potter" author falsely described Khelif as a man. "These people, they need help."

"I want our voice and my example to be louder, in the end," Steele adds. "I just hope it drowns out the voice that is weaker, and that's my method. I don't like confronting. For one, you confront someone fast like Dave Chappelle and you're going to get eviscerated. It's like going on Fox News with [former host] Tucker Carlson. Why would I subject myself to that when I'm just going to get eaten up in ways I won't enjoy?"

"Will & Harper" actively seeks to neutralize the cries of "cancel culture" from cable news anchors and stand-up comics by taking no topic of conversation off the table. With Ferrell as her curious everyman interlocutor, Steele explains her choice of a new name, discusses her physical appearance and sexuality, acknowledges her bouts of suicidal ideation; she introduces her children, visits her sister, shares her letters, diaries and most painful memories. As a result of this vulnerability, she offers a remarkable invitation to viewers who might otherwise pass judgment, or avoid the conversation entirely, out of fear that they will say the wrong thing, or cause offense, or discover that their experience is not in fact universal.

"One of the many things that I loved about her transition is her constant wanting to talk about it," says Steele's friend and former "SNL" collaborator Kristen Wiig, who co-wrote and performed an original song for the film. "[It fostered] this open dialogue to keep those connections, make them stronger and to really explain what she had been going through for years that a lot of us weren't privy to."

The film has already succeeded in sparking that dialogue among viewers, according to Greenbaum. At one screening at the Sundance Film Festival , where the film had its world premiere earlier this year, he recalls meeting a woman and her son, a trans man, who had been estranged since his transition but reconnected when she bought them tickets to "Will & Harper" as a sort of cinematic olive branch. Steele, for her part, admits to having more nerves over "Will & Harper" resonating with trans audiences than persuading cis ones — perhaps because she understands firsthand the harm produced by Hollywood's powerful mirror.

"Klinger probably destroyed my life," she says of the cross-dressing "M.A.S.H." character played for laughs by Jamie Farr. "He was literally looking to be discharged for being crazy for that. That was his whole character." By contrast, the 1974 James Caan/Alan Arkin buddy cop movie "Freebie and the Bean" became one of her favorite movies, thanks to its thieving female impersonator. "To see a man look that beautiful was confusing," she says.

In such confusion lay the other animating question of "Will & Harper," and indeed of LGBTQ+ popular culture more broadly: What story would we, should we, tell about ourselves if we could tell any story we wanted? Some will argue that self-expression is the goal, others moral suasion; some will prefer soft power to storming the barricades and some the reverse. Advocates for populism will confront those for high art while the diplomats among us try to squeeze them together into our society's narrowing middle ground. And anyone who tells you that theirs is the one true path is either uninformed or lying.

"I guess shame on me, but that was just a funny show with talented actors," Ferrell says, of "Will & Grace," gently pushing back on Greenbaum's earlier assessment. "Big, landmark, statement show, in a way — yes, of course, I recognize that at the same time. But also, that's just great ensemble comedy. Fun writing. Great premises."

Notably, Steele doesn't weigh in on this one. She doesn't need to. "Will & Harper" — as "Will & Grace" was for gay men of a certain generation — is just one of countless possible varieties of trans representation. There's no shortage of stories to tell, or unanswerable questions to ask.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times .