Self Reliance

Self Reliance (2024) is an American comedy-thriller you can watch online on iFILM. Written and directed by Jake Johnson — who also stars — the film co-stars Anna Kendrick, Andy Samberg and Christopher Lloyd in a premise that sounds like a pitch and plays out like a genuine character study.

Tommy is a man going nowhere when a stranger pulls up and offers him a deal: join a real dark-web reality show, survive hunters trying to kill him, collect one million dollars. The catch is that the hunters can only strike when he is completely alone. The obvious solution — never be alone — turns out to be the hardest thing in his life. His family thinks he has lost his mind, his friends don't pick up, and the only person willing to walk next to him is a woman who has her own reasons for needing company.

Johnson uses the paranoid setup to ask a quieter question: what does it mean that a man has to be hunted before he actually reaches out to another person. The loophole premise is funny. The answer it uncovers is less so. Stream Self Reliance (2024) online on iFILM.