PLOT: When Tommy Walcott is invited into a limo by famous actor Andy Samberg, his dull life takes a thrilling turn. Tommy is offered a chance to win a million dollars in a dark web reality TV show, where assassins from all over the world attempt to kill him for 30 days. The catch? He can’t be killed if he’s not entirely alone, leading him to recruit an unlikely team to help him survive.
REVIEW: Jake Johnson is hilarious. After his breakout role as Nick Miller on FOX sitcom New Girl, Johnson has appeared alongside Tom Cruise in The Mummy, Chris Pratt in the Jurassic World franchise, and voicing Peter B. Parker in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Across the Spider-Verse. While Johnson has written several films, including Digging for Fire, Win It All, and Ride the Eagle, he makes his directorial debut with the new film Self Reliance. As writer, director, and star, Johnson does not deliver the movie you would have expected from him, but certainly one we should have been ready for. A nice blend of heartfelt and emotionally resonant storytelling with a wacky and slightly surreal bend, Self Reliance is a solid debut for a new filmmaker with potential for the future. That being said, Self Reliance has its faults, many of which are apparent from the outset, but it still delivers a lighter version of David Fincher’s The Game.
Self Reliance opens with a montage of the banal daily life of Tommy Walcott (Jake Johnson), echoing a similar opening to the Tom Hanks movie Joe Versus The Volcano. Working a mediocre job and having moved back in with his mother, much to the chagrin of his sisters (Mary Holland and Emily Hampshire), Tommy struggles with why his ex-girlfriend (Natalie Morales) broke up with him. One day, while walking to work, a limo pulls up and reveals Andy Samberg (played by Andy Samberg), who invites him in and reads off cue cards from a mysterious company. Tommy soon finds himself a contestant in a game show being broadcast on the dark web in which he must survive for thirty days as hunters from around the globe try to kill him. Tommy realizes that there is a loophole in that they can only murder him if he is alone, which prompts him to take a shot at the money. Within days, Tommy uses family members as his safety net despite their reluctance to believe the game show is real. Tommy even goes as far as to hire a homeless man named James (Biff Wiff) to shadow him day and night. Self Reliance starts light and silly.
When Tommy puts an ad on Craigslist for other contestants, he meets Maddy (Anna Kendrick). He and Maddy decide to collaborate and spend some time together, allowing sparks to fly between the two. As quickly as the chemistry between Tommy and Maddy heats up, so do the stakes in the game as production assistants (Eduardo Franco), and assassins dressed like Michael Jackson and Mario begin popping up. As everyone around Tommy questions his sanity, the once-lonely guy begins questioning his own life and the sadness of his isolation. It is an intriguing premise that counts down the days even as the eventual conclusion comes at us at full speed. The story begins with decent pacing and unravels as the film enters its third act. Many characters and threads introduced in the first hour, including cameos from Christopher Lloyd and Wayne Brady, are too quickly wrapped up in the final thirty minutes. Jake Johnson knows when to make things funny and handles the more sincere moments well, but they feel unfinished when the end credits roll. Anna Kendrick, who is always a welcome addition to any film, feels like a manic pixie dream girl who never quite reaches her full potential in this narrative.
The everyman quality that Jake Johnson brings to Tommy is similar to his past roles. The plucky, naive, and somewhat dopey demeanor both characters share also extends to their relationships with friends and lovers. The unlikely friendship between Tommy and James follows an equally odd pairing Jake Johnson had with Ralph Ahn as the silent elderly character Tran on New Girl. Biff Wiff has a charm here that is sweet and better than I had expected and turns what otherwise could have been a two-dimensional role into something deeper. Wiff is the exception here, as almost everyone else in the cast exists to move the narrative forward rather than participating in the tale. As an overall story, Self Reliance sets up quite a bit for Tommy to dig through, but not all of it amounts to much. There is a concrete story here, but it is surrounded by elements from directions the film ultimately does not explore. This sometimes makes the movie feel like a collection of good ideas propping up a core tale that is not strong enough on its own.
Andy Samberg’s appearance in Self Reliance comes from the fact that this film is a production courtesy of The Lonely Island. The SNL veteran comedy troupe previously delivered the movies Palm Springs and Brigsby Bear through their Lonely Island Classics production company and other solo projects from Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone. Like those movies, Self Reliance has an indie charm that blends the high-concept story with some emotional moments that do land. There are also times when the story ventures into darker territory involving death and mental health that I would have liked to see Jake Johnson dig into more deeply. By the end of the movie, it becomes clear what Tommy’s motivations are for participating in the dark web game, and it is a refreshing rationale that also makes the story feel a little sadder. Despite that, the movie did make me laugh quite a bit.
Self Reliance is exactly the kind of indie movie that builds up solid buzz thanks to the charming lead actors who channel just enough energy to make a risky project like this work. The movie is far from great, but it is far from bad as well. It is a weird movie that made me smile, and sometimes, that is more than enough to warrant a watch. I would have liked to see more from the supporting players, who are almost all wasted in their roles, but Jake Johnson and Biff Wiff make up for those shortcomings with their shared scenes. Johnson channels Tom Cruise’s energetic running throughout Self Reliance. I hope he continues to work behind the camera as both writer and director, as he has proven with this movie that he is up to the task.