It’s been fun watching the cast of TV’s “New Girl” find new projects: Winston (Lamorne Morris) just had a heroic turn in FX’s “Fargo,” Schmidt (Max Greenfield) was a perfectly-cast douchebag in “Promising Young Woman,” and CeCe (Hannah Simone) is the best-friend sidekick in ABC’s “Not Dead Yet.”
Still, I didn’t have on my bingo card that Nick (Jake Johnson) would become a slick indie filmmaker after playing Zooey Deschanel’s roommate/love interest, an underrated love story compared to Ross and Rachel in “Friends” or Jim and Pam in “The Office” for a happy ending that eluded Joseph Gordon-Levitt in “(500) Days of Summer.”
Yet that’s exactly what happened as Johnson writes, directs and stars in “Self Reliance,” a high-concept comedy thriller that’s almost as outlandish as Nick’s novel “The Pepperwood Chronicles” but one that is handled with enough clever care that Neon purchased it after its premiere at South by Southwest to now release on Hulu.
Set in modern-day Los Angeles, the story follows Tommy (Johnson), who just broke up with his girlfriend and has no real direction in life. That changes when Andy Samberg (playing himself) pulls up in a limo and offers to take him to a mysterious warehouse. There, he’s cast on a reality TV show to win $1 million if he can survive 30 days evading hunters who can only kill him if he’s alone, so he begs family, friends and strangers to stay by his side.
You’ll enjoy pointing at the screen to play “six degrees of sitcom separation” with your significant other on a date night. Hey, look! It’s Nick from “New Girl” heartbroken over Tom Haverford’s girlfriend from “Parks & Rec” (Natalie Morales)! Too bad he can’t confide in Audrey from “Grace Under Fire” (Nancy Lenehan) as his mother or Shawnee from “Veep” (Mary Holland) and Stevie from “Schitt’s Creek” (Emily Hampshire) as his skeptical sisters!
It’s more than just meta casting; Johnson seems keenly aware of our pop-culture touchstones, mining some of his biggest laughs from stars playing themselves. It doesn’t actually make sense that Samberg, Christopher Lloyd and Wayne Brady make self-aware cameos while other famous stars like Anna Kendrick play fictional roles, but she delivers tender moments as a hopeless romantic. We believe them as a couple of misfits who need each other.
Not only does Johnson coach fine performances in his directorial debut, he also writes the screenplay. His funniest-written moment is a toilet scene showing Tommy is terrified to be alone, while his funniest-directed moment is a group of reality show production assistants popping out of the bedroom with ninja-like stealth. Other choices like the hero hanging out with a homeless stranger feel like a retread of Nick with pal Tran in “New Girl.”
In the end, there’s no escaping comparisons to David Fincher’s “The Game,” which did it first and better. There are also hints of Netflix’s “Squid Game” with the proverbial “play stupid games, win stupid prizes.” The thrills are never as tense as David Robert Mitchell’s horror flick “It Follows,” which similarly kept its main character on the run from stalkers, nor is the comedy as funny as Peter Weir’s hidden-camera masterpiece “The Truman Show.”
Still, if you don’t mind the derivative, it’s an enjoyable enough romp on Hulu if you’re looking for something fun to watch on a Friday night. Your significant other may wish for more falling action with a rom-com epilogue, but you might just think it cuts to black at the right moment — and that’s probably exactly what made it a festival darling.
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