Eurovision Song Contest: The Story Of Fire Saga

Originally due out May in tandem with Eurovision, the latest from Will Ferrell has him co-starring with Rachel McAdams as part of a songwriting duo hailing from Iceland. Eurovision, of course, is famous for its colourful and bombastic performances—material well-suited to Ferrell, and in this trailer he naturally leans into the spirit of the occasion. 

The difficulty, if anything, is that it can be hard to lampoon something that thoroughly and unabashedly lampoons itself. Much like other entries in the Will Ferrell comedy canon, then, we see at the heart of this trailer an unabashed earnestness that can read either as further comedic material, or as betraying a bit of real heart under the thick veneer of parodic humour. 

The first ten seconds of the trailer offers a countdown incorporating a synthesised voice, offering a twist on other insistently rhythmic motifs in found in many modern trailers, such as the use of ticking or clapping. Here, it serves as a sort of countdown, and the unusual choice of instrument serves as an excellent precursor to the musical antics to come. At 0:35 and 0:55 we hear a booj serving to introduce Ferrell’s one-liners; usually reserved for dramatic action moments, its use in the comedy trailer format is highly unconventional, and yet it works for the over-the-top personas on screen. 

The synch points between the music and visual are quick enough to be almost unnoticeable and subversive, such as 1:28 with the whipping sound effect paired to ripping off of clothes on stage. At 1:46 we hear a metadiegetic moment, with the pair singing on stage working in synch with the epic music off screen.

Things really take a turn, however, at 1:58, when the entire feel of the trailer eschews the previous Europop for something much more toned down and even touching, paired with the a titled card lamenting “when everything seems lost”. The track appears to be original to the movie, which seems appropriate given its musical focus. The dialogue following takes this straight-faced approach up until 2:08, when it literally and figuratively evaporates in a puff of reverb, replaced instead by some typically Ferrell-branded humour involving a mispronunciation of “Simon and Garfunkel”. 

However, the aforementioned track returns in an uplifting strain, and while one could hear this as a total of pastiche of all things Eurovision, there is also a layer here that reminds the North American audioviewer that Eurovision is ultimately a huge, prestigious competition that millions of Europeans very much care about. It’s this extra layer of earnestness that the latter half of the trailer mostly reinforces—yet never entirely. Even the lyrics of this song are knowingly ridiculous, with lines such as “where the mountains sing to the screams of seagulls” delivered straight.

Eurovision Song Contest is out on Netflix June 26.

— Curtis Perry