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By TeeJay Small
| Published
If you spend as much time trolling around Hulu and Tubi as I do, you’re bound to come across a few hidden gems from time to time. This was certainly the case for me when I stumbled across Self Reliance on Hulu last week. The film is a fun, screwball comedy written, directed, and starring New Girl‘s Jake Johnson. Fresh off that viewing experience, my algorithm detected that I was on some kind of Jake Johnson kick, and alerted me to another starring vehicle for the comedian which released two years earlier.
The second film in my unexpected double feature, Ride The Eagletouts Johnson’s writing and performance, as directed by Australian filmmaker Trent O’Donnell. While I enjoyed both movies tremendously, I was shocked at just how similar they were. In fact, I’m now on the hunt for a third thematically identical Jake Johnson film, just to see if I can round off a perfect trilogy.
An Unassuming Double Feature
Let’s start from the beginning. On its face, the plot of Self Reliance has little in common with the plot of Ride The Eagle. The former centers on Johnson’s Tommy Walcott as he joins a high-stakes reality game show which is live-streamed to the darkest corners of the internet. Essentially, he’s in a snuff film where he’s being hunted by celebrity lookalikes at all times. The catch is, they can only attack him when he’s completely alone, so Tommy makes an effort to be surrounded by friends and strangers at all times.
Ride The Eagleon the other hand, sees Johnson portraying a burnout percussionist by the name of Leif Reinhold, who is informed right at the start that his estranged mother has passed away. Leif’s mother abandoned him when he was a child, and the two never reconciled, but she has agreed to leave him a cabin in her will, so long as he follows a set of carefully laid instructions. Feeling conflicted about his tenuous relationship to his mom, Leif packs up his adorable, scene-stealing dog, and moves into the cabin as he begins working his way down the eccentric checklist.
Thematic Overlap
Here’s where the similarities begin. Both films feature Jake Johnson working out his issues with his parents. Leif’s strained relationship with his mother leaves him searching for meaning, and wondering if he should be grieving differently. In Self Reliancea major plot element is the fact that Tommy’s dad abandoned him in his youth. At one point, Tommy’s dad returns to give him some words of advice, which places major strain on Tommy’s relationship to his sister, since she believes he’s suffering from delusions of grandeur.
The next major through line is JJ’s romantic relationships with women. Ride The Eagle features an absolutely electric performance from The Good Place‘s D’arcy Carden, as Leif’s ex girlfriend Audrey. Lief calls Audrey after his mom’s checklist commands him to rekindle his feelings for the “one who got away,” sparking a level of on-the-phone chemistry that made me blush like I was in a three-way call. In Self Reliancethis character is effectively split into two women, as Tommy sparks up a whirlwind romance with Anna Kendrick’s Maddy. Elsewhere in the film, he confronts his ex girlfriend Theresa about their recent break up, in a scene that feels way too real to be entirely fictional.
Back To Back, Or Over Time?
Finally, there’s the revolving cast of characters that fill out the world of each movie. Jake Johnson has a fun-loving, adorable sidekick in both films, who goes missing for a portion of the runtime only to reappear again later with little explanation. Both films feature Jake Johnson calling out to an uncaring onlooker about keeping his loved ones safe from harm, concluding with a threat of violence if his warning goes unheeded. And of course, both films conclude with JJ going after the girl, having unearthed a level of spontaneity and passion that was previously buried by trauma or listlessness.
I’m not making the argument that Jake Johnson is a one-trick pony here, but I do think it’s odd that these two films have so much in common. Personally, I’d give a slight edge to Ride The Eagleif only for the knock-out performances of JK Simmons and Susan Sarandon. Despite their obvious similarities, I’d still wholeheartedly recommend both films, but maybe they should be viewed a few weeks apart, so they don’t blend together in your brain.
If you’re interested in checking this Jake Johnson double feature out for yourself, you can find Self Reliance on Hulu, and Ride The Eagle on Tubi. These are a great watch for anyone suffering New Girl withdrawals, or anyone who loves a concise, comedic character study set in a bizarre, offbeat world.
