When I saw the independent comedy Quiz Lady streaming exclusively on Hulu in November last year, I thought, "Well that was a flat and stale film if I've ever seen one." And I became concerned about the quality of Hulu's original content. Is Hulu bound by such meager budgetary limits it can't give us memorable or risk-taking films? Is Hulu trying to carve a mid-level niche for itself to just make boring, square content with no genuine creativity (following in the footsteps of Disney+)?
These thoughts have been floating in my head the past few months, so I wasn't exactly filled with anticipation to watch the recent film release called Self Reliance currently on Hulu. Starting this film was like the feeling you get when attending a party or community theater production you don't want to go to. You think, "This show (or this party) is going to suck, and I'm never going to get back these three hours I'm about to sacrifice."
My sour attitude at the beginning of Self Reliance miraculously changed thanks to the casual yet clumsy humor and the exceptionally odd premise. A single, complacent, adult man living with his mother is secretly offered a chance to compete in a reality TV competition where unknown hunters try to kill him over a 30-day period. If our leading man survives this game, he wins one million dollars. And he thinks he can actually succeed when he learns the hunters can only attack him when he's alone. This loophole inspires the ordinary guy to hire a homeless man as his constant companion and then connect with a woman from Craigslist who is also playing the murderous game.
Self Reliance is an unpretentious, laid back comedy that feels like the playwright Samuel Beckett meets a demented game show host and takes too many hits of marijuana. I was pleasantly surprised watching many moments of forced togetherness combined with the suspicion of being recorded by hundreds of hidden cameras. The understated humor helps this film feel more like a relatable coming-of-age story and thankfully less like an excuse for adults to look wide-eyed and crazy to get cheap laughs.
Jake Johnson, known mostly from the seven seasons of the millennial sitcom New Girl (2011-2018), is director, screenwriter, and star of this project giving a leery, confused, yet determined, performance with a disheveled face that goes from sullen to shocked. Self Reliance is not an award-winning comedy, but it maintains its relaxed vibe well and it's at least fun to watch. This film felt like a quietly poignant product of today's societal climate filled with monotonous self-imposed isolation and anxiety. Viewers at home who watch this might even feel their mood improve like I did.
