by Robert Bouffard, Editor
Though he really made a name for himself in the sitcom world as Nick Miller, the second lead in New Girl, Jake Johnson, has carved out for himself a nice little career in indie movies. Through his various collaborations with Joe Swanberg as both a co-writer and actor in Drinking Buddies, Win It All, and Digging for Fire; Trent O’Donnel’s Ride the Eagle; and Colin Trevorrow’s breakout, Safety Not Guaranteed, in a departure from Nick, Johnson’s done a great job of playing the everyman in slightly extenuating circumstances, and he excels in the archetype. In Win It All, he’s a regular guy with a gambling addiction; in Ride the Eagle, he’s a regular guy whose late, eccentric mother leaves him an elaborate scavenger hunt for his inheritance; in Digging for Fire, he’s a regular guy who finds a gun and a bone in the back garden of his rental home. Sure, he appears in the odd Jurassic World or Tag, but even in the Spider-Verse movies, he’s the Peter Parker who lives the most typical life.
So it only makes sense that Johnson took from all of these experiences to write and direct Self Reliance, which feels like the quintessential Jake Johnson movie.
In Self Reliance, Johnson plays Tommy, a regular guy, who lives a normal, monotonous life. He’s recently broken up with his longtime girlfriend, and now lives with his mother for lack of money to afford anywhere else. That is, until the actor Andy Samberg (playing himself) pulls up in a limousine and offers Tommy the chance to play a “game” where he has to survive for 30 days while people hunt and try to kill him. The catch is, the hunters won’t kill him if he’s with someone. And if he survives the 30 days, he gets a million dollars. Eager to jump at any chance to escape the repetition of everyday life, Tommy accepts.
What ensues is a mad rush for Tommy to always be accompanied by someone. His sister and mother think he’s going crazy after his breakup and don’t believe the game is real, so they refuse to accompany him and his brother-in-law ultimately politely declines to help, so Tommy hires a homeless person named James (played by the amazing Biff Wiff from I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson) to be his shadow, and goofiness ensues.
That goofiness is Self Reliance’s biggest strength. Because even at just 91 minutes, the pacing can be slow. The characters can also be uninteresting, particularly one played by Anna Kendrick, who has a predictable and ultimately boring arc, which sacrifices any chemistry she might have with Johnson, who she’s starred with before in a couple of those Swanberg movies. But those issues aside, Johnson is always a joy to watch, as are the jokes he writes, both verbal and visual. He’s endlessly charming, and there’s something about the desperation of a disaffected everyman that hits particularly close to home in today’s economy. Plus, after a few writing credits, he has a decent directorial eye, with little camera tricks like the use of a fish eye lens add some visual style.
Self Reliance is somewhere in the middle of the spectrum in terms of normalcy in Jake Johnson movies. It’s not the mumblecore, realistic tone of Drinking Buddies, and it’s not the heightened time travel of Safety Not Guaranteed — it has its own personality and its own tone, while never deviating from what you love and expect from a Johnson vehicle.
Rating: Liked It
Self Reliance is currently streaming on Hulu
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