In the mood for a story about a man who enters a reality TV show, only to be hunted by assassins for 30 days in an attempt to win a fortune? If so, you might be considering checking out Edgar Wright’s “The Running Man,” but you might also want to turn your attention to “Self Reliance,” an overlooked 2024 comedy thriller available to stream on Hulu right now.
The movie was written, directed by, and stars Jake Johnson in his feature length directorial debut. Johnson plays Tommy, a middle-aged Los Angeles office worker who one day is approached by Andy Samberg (playing himself). The actor invites Tommy into a limo and offers him the chance to go on an “adventure.” That adventure involves Tommy competing in a dark web reality TV show where he’ll be pursued by a group of assassins for 30 days. If he survives the entire time, he wins $1 million. If he’s killed, well … he’s killed. There is one particular rule that adds another layer to the game, however: Tommy can’t be killed if he’s with someone else. That prompts him to recruit a team of people whose job it is to shadow him and make sure he survives. One of those people is Anna Kendrick’s Maddy, with whom Tommy strikes up a relationship, ultimately revealing the movie to be more about human connection than sci-fi spectacle.
If that sounds vaguely familiar, it should in the wake of Wright’s “The Running Man,” which stumbles despite star Glen Powell’s charm. “Self Reliance,” however, not only manages to avoid stumbling for the most part, it also has a better Rotten Tomatoes score (not that the site which claims Sean Connery’s only perfect movie is “Darby O’Gill and the Little People” should be taken too seriously, but still).
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Self Reliance is a thriller with heart
Anna Kendrick’s Maddy sits opposite Jake Johnson’s Tommy in a bar in Self Reliance – Hulu
There are a ton of great comedies streaming on Hulu right now, but not all of them have the charming mix of action, comedy, and slightly unsettling tinges of dystopian sci-fi that “Self Reliance” does. Thus far, however, Jake Johnson’s unique comedy thriller has remained criminally overlooked.
After a 2023 premiere at South by Southwest, “Self Reliance” was given a one-night theatrical release in January 2024 before hitting Hulu that same month. Sadly, the movie failed to cause too much of a stir, which is a shame considering the critics were big fans. At the time of writing, “Self Reliance” has a solid 73% score on Rotten Tomatoes with reviewers praising Johnson and Anna Kendrick’s chemistry and the writer/director/star’s “keen sense of everyman absurdism.”
Even without the endorsement of critics, however, “Self Reliance” should appeal to fans of “The Running Man,” whether that’s in reference to the original Stephen King novel, the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger adaptation, or Edgar Wright’s take on “The Running Man,” which changed the original story’s ending. Johnson’s movie has a lot less sinister AI than the 2025 movie, setting its deadly game within the realm of the dark web rather than in some techno-dystopia. It’s also a much smaller feature than either “The Running Man” adaptations, as you might imagine given its streaming release. Still, it makes for a fun time with a lot of heart, which, judging by initial reactions to Wright’s movie, is more than can be said for the 2025 blockbuster. If you need a hand understanding the more confusing parts of “Self-Reliance,” /Film has you covered there, too, so if you have a Hulu subscription, there’s no good reason not to check this one out.
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Read the original article on SlashFilm.
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