By Julia Weber, Features Editor

[MRC, 2024]

Rating: 7/10

What if New Girl’s Nick Miller starred in a thriller?

Jake Johnson’s directorial debut film follows Tommy Walcott, a man yearning for connection, as he embarks on a dark web reality television show game. Johnson’s sense of humor and lighthearted vulnerability inform his latest project to produce a film that tows the line between tender earnestness and constant suspense.

Johnson, best known for his portrayal of New Girl’s Nick Miller, wrote, directed, produced, and starred in Self Reliance. After premiering at South by Southwest in March of last year, Hulu acquired the film. It is now available for streaming via the company’s website.

Read more: Movie Review: Priscilla

Main character Tommy Walcott is somewhat reminiscent of a slightly more grown up Nick Miller. The film follows Walcott, who was recently dumped by his long-term girlfriend, as he turns to a most risky option out of desperation for human connection and community.

A star studded cast brings the film to life, breaking the fourth wall with cameos from Andy Samberg. The film simultaneously maintains the cinematic universe that characters portrayed by the likes of Jake Johnson, Anna Kendrick, Natalie Morales and Biff Wiff exist in. The characters are fully fleshed and demonstrate significant growth through the film, even those in more minor roles.

Off-kilter awkwardness, clumsy conversations, and jokes that don’t quite land are what Johnson and Kendrick do best. Their respective characters, Tommy and Maddy, engage in a near-constant tripping-over-shoelaces, not-quite-on-the-same-wavelength extended bit, each as delightfully and charmingly awkward as the other. The duo achieves this while still maintaining a heartfelt depth and vulnerability to their characters.

The plot is entirely ridiculous, fantastical, and far-fetched but somehow makes total sense. Mind f*ck weird and totally bizarre, but it works somehow? As bizarre to the viewer as it is to Walcott. There is not a lot of context to the premise of the game Tommy is partaking in, which can make the movie hard to follow at some points, but mirrors the confusion of the main character.

The film makes a valiant and nearly successful attempt at pacing, given that the plot takes place over the course of 30 days. Inevitably, in these scenarios there are parts of the film that drag. Self Reliance is no exception, at times feeling repetitive or futile, particularly as Walcott navigates the latter half of the game.

In terms of technical aspects, Self Reliance’s strongest point is its use of color palettes and lighting. Blue tones seep into the film through costuming, lighting, and atmospheric color schemes, ushering in a cohesive and unified color palette that ties to film together. Conversely, the camera work and angles throughout the film are disorienting and mildly stomach churning, heightening the edge-of-your-seat intense thriller suspense. Combined, the technical elements of the film strike a balance between Walcott’s rather dismal, dreary, and repetitive life with the everpresent anxiety and tumultuous events of the game show.

The film uses sound effectively, opting for a minimal soundtrack and sparing use of synched tracks, but frequently employing non-diegetic, intense transitional drumming to establish the demarcation of days as the challenge progresses.

Much like the New Girl character Johnson is best known for, Self Reliance tells a compelling, heartfelt narrative of a man yearning for connection while cleverly toying the line between off-kilter comedy and thriller. 

Even if the similarities between Walcott and Miller are a little too evident at times, it’s as fun and earnest as a thriller gets, and demonstrates a promising future for Johnson’s directorial endeavors.