Self Reliance is about a man Tommy, (played by Jake Johnson) who agrees to be hunted down as part of a game to win $1 million. The movie is written and directed by Jake Johnson, whom I have always loved, and he brings such a natural comedic air to his work.
Johnson’s writing is naturally funny. I think that’s the benefit of being a comedic actor and writing your movie. His style just resonates with me, and luckily, the rest of the crew are good at playing up to it. It hasn’t always worked that way with other actors, but I liked the approach here.
His direction is nothing spectacular, but he put together a nice solid movie here.Â
If I have to critique the movie, its pacing is all wonky. Within ten minutes of barely knowing Tommy, he’s already accepting the invite into the game and we’re supposed to believe that he is tired of his monotonous and is willing to risk death just for a thrill. From there, the movie has some serious lows where not much consequence happens. It can feel hollow in that regard.
I think part of the issue is also that the movie is trying to balance a lot of different tones. When I first saw the premise, it reminded me of Liam Hemsworth and Christoph Waltz’s Most Dangerous Game. The difference was that Most Dangerous Game was more gritty and action-driven whereas Self-Reliance is more jumbled. Sometimes it wants to be an action movie, sometimes it’s a rom-com and other times it is a psychological drama.Â
Very often we’re reminded of the game but nothing of consequence besides driving Tommy to meet other people. The ending wasn’t entirely satisfying, everything wrapped up too cleanly in my eyes. However, I think it matched the movie itself better, as it’s not trying to be super provocative and neither is its ending.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Self Reliance is a fun little movie of little consequence. It doesn’t do anything revolutionary but Jake Johnson’s charm stands out. It tries to teach a message about taking risks and I think it accomplished it. I love Jake Johnson and Biff Wiff is perfect in this movie as his companion. Will this be a movie I think about in a couple of months, no. But in the moment, this was a pretty good watch and I enjoyed it.
3/5
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