Self Reliance is a story that stays middle ground from start to finish. I love Jake Johnson, and considering he wrote and directed this film I was really excited to see what he brought us. The story wont wow you as much as it won’t lull you to sleep but does just enough to keep you engaged.
Self Reliance follows Tommy who is offered a million dollars to play a game in which four hunters try to kill him for thirty days. He thinks he has found the perfect loophole: they can only attack when he’s alone. His only problem is that none of his friends or family believe the game is real.
The movie takes no time jumping into the meat of the story, which is great. The cast is an all-star lineup. Jake Johnson, Andy Samberg, Christopher Llyod, Anna Kendrick, Gata. The list goes on. Again, I will reiterate, I love Jake Johnson but sadly he wasn’t the hotspot of this film. The film doesn’t really feel full until Anna Kendrick’s character, Maddy, enters the story. A girl who responds to a Craigslist post Tommy makes saying she too is playing the game. Maddy’s interactions with Tommy are the highlights of the film. Two broken people, being silly enjoying life while also staying less than a two feet apart the entire time. Before Maddy however, Tommy hired a homeless man named James, played by Biff Wiff, to shadow him for the thirty days. Biff Wiff’s character is such a ball of positive energy that I wish they went more into him and less about Tommy’s family. I’ll talk about them later. Maddy and James bring light to a dull world created in the film. There’s also a Mario Bros. bit between Tommy, Maddy, and one of the hunters that is top tier.
This movie was entertaining, even if not mind blowing. The movie is also on the lower end of the length spectrum so it’s a quick and easy watch that I would easily recommend.
The climax of this movie isn’t very high and the lows aren’t very low. It is a mild ride which isn’t the worst thing but also isn’t what I wanted going into it. The thing that bothered me throughout most of the movie was what I can only describe as the loop hole’s, loop hole. If Anna Kendrick was in the game as well and her and Tommy were both together why couldn’t the hunter just get two birds with one stone? This loop hole does get “solved” as the story progresses but I could only think why didn’t Tommy worry about this for the parts it wasn’t. Also, for being hunted there were an extraordinary amount of moments when, if a hunter had a gun, as hunters usually do, they could’ve easily gotten Tommy. The moments with Tommy’s family (his mom and three sisters) were the weakest by far. The only saving grace for them was Daryl Johnson’s character Malcolm, one of Tommy’s sister’s partners.
Overall, I did enjoy this film. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but it did have enough fun moments to keep me in it. The cast all played their roles to their usually top standards and each one brought their own light to the story. Self Reliance is worth the watch but it isn’t something you’ll be dying to watch again.
Self Reliance releases on Hulu on January 12.
