Comedy Watch: Self Reliance (2023)

Watched:  03/17/2024

Format:  Hulu

Viewing:  First

Director:  Jake Johnson

Selection:  Jamie says I picked it

In general, I like Jake Johnson, whether in The New Girl or Jurassic World or voicing Spider-Man or whatever.  He's written and directed a smaller-ish film that's now on Hulu, a sort of modern thriller-comedy.  

The basic gist is that Jake Johnson is an office drone living with his mother after a bad breakup two year prior, and he is in a rut.  Go to work, work out at home a bit, spend time with his mom and sisters, and that's about it.  When he's picked up in a limo by Andy Samberg - not a character Samberg is playing, he's picked up by Andy Samberg.  Samberg takes him to a warehouse where two Greenlandish folks offer him the chance to star in a Dark Web gameshow where he will be hunted by people who are hunting him to kill him.  If he survives for thirty days, he gets a million dollars.  But there's a rule (which he insists is a loophole) that no one can kill him if he's physically with someone else.

The real appeal of the movie is whether you like Johnson's schtick or not, and then seeing Johnson goof around with a host of folks you generally already like.  Samberg, Emily Hampshire, Mary Holland, Anna Kendrick, Miriam Flynn, Natalie Morales, Boban Marjanovic, Eduardo Franco...  

SPOILERS

Johnson assumes his family will want to help him, but they don't believe him and think he's just acting crazy.  He hires a homeless guy to hang out with him, who is enthusiastic at the prospect (and before you get your dander up, this is funny and is handled way, way better than you expect).  

Johnson puts a comment out on facebook to see if anyone else is playing, and finds Kendrick is also involved.  The two decide to pair up and hang out non-stop to make it through the 30 days.  

Along the way, Johnson resolves his issues with his ex (Morales) and his absentee dad (Christopher Lloyd).  

In general, the script is there to give Johnson a lot of opportunities as a writer, performer and director and to hang out with people he wants to hang out with.  And that's great.  I can't imagine this movie cost much to make.  There's minimal FX, few complicated set-ups and what I assume are rented locations rather than built sets.

But it also feels like the script needed another pass or two.  It weirdly calls out the way in which movie scripts work - you have the character's pre-existing problems solved by the challenge of the movie's overall conflict.  And the turn into the 3rd act is messy and unmoored.  I literally rewatched a full scene as I thought I'd missed something.  

In a perfect world, we'd have also not seen first/ vanity projects by comic-actors as they go dark.  Unfortunately, this means as we cruise along toward the ending, you get taken out of the movie a bit as the film starts suggesting "oh, this whole thing really was in his mind" and you start thinking "wow, that would be so disappointing, they're not going to do that, are they?  That seems like some 1990's stuff.  So then it's a red herring" and, essentially, you're thinking about what Jake Johnson is doing as a main routine rather than a subroutine.

There's also, oddly, not enough of any of the other characters.  Kendrick is in the movie less than I expected, and her twist doesn't necessarily make a lot of sense - especially as she's involved her mother and her mother's house.  If she's in it for weird sex stuff, does one really include their mom?  Or invite someone into their house?  Especially when their story sounds like the rantings of someone having a psychotic break?  

So it just all *barely* hangs together.  

In part because you also start thinking "if this is real, this is the worst possible way to survive your 30 days.  You hit the road and disappear, you don't go to your mom's house."  In some ways, it just never really pushes the idea as far as it feels like it could have gone, for whatever reason.  Budget.  Original script.  I have no idea.  

There's definitely some great bits in it.  Every time the "ninjas" appear.  James' positive buddy-ness.  The sisters are hysterical (and should be in more stuff - hire Emily Hampshire, Hollywood).  Johnson himself remains pretty likable even as he's basically a ranting maniac at the end.  And, yes, the fact it was all real saves what could have been a deeply disappointing ending.  

I do think we see Johnson seems to know what he's doing directing a movie, so that's interesting.  I hope he gets more opportunity to write and direct and continues on this path, but I also think he could use a writing partner or partners to help him kill his darlings.