I’m going to murder Andy Samberg.

Every once in a while a movie comes along that proves me completely wrong. For example, I assumed that there was no way that a film about someone being hunted for sport could be imaginative and entertaining after the avalanche we’ve had over the last seven years. But then I realized that the problem isn’t the plot but the characters. So many of these films have the same cookie cutter characters; either the lead is a person who starts out weak and gradually gains more confidence, or they are secretly a badass CIA ex-marine murder machine who have been plotting revenge against said organization for years, flipping the genre on its head in ironically a completely predictable fashion.

I’m also not going to doubt one of my family members if they ever insist they’ve gotten caught up in a darkweb human sport hunting game and need to stay at my house for a month to be safe. It just seems safer to assume the truth after I’ve seen all these films.

Directed by Jake Johnson in his debut directorial feature film, Self Reliance was written by Jake Johnson and stars Jake Johnson as Tommy. A risky bet, the directorial debut where the director is also the writer and the star, but stick with me. Tommy gets offered a deal that if he manages to stay alive for one month as hunters try to kill him, he gets $1 million. The assurance he gets is that his family is guaranteed to be safe as the hunters can only attack him while he is alone. Assuming he’s figured out how to beat the game, Tommy agrees to the rules and immediately goes to his family to stay safe.

Only for them to throw him out because his family are unsupportive assholes. I love Tommy’s family. His mom Laurie (Nancy Lenehan) and sisters Amy (Mary Holland) and Mary (Emily Hampshire) play their roles so well that you genuinely come to have contempt for them. There’s a good cast of celebrities playing themselves including Andy Samberg, Wayne Brady, and actually that’s it. Christopher Lloyd is here, surprisingly not as himself, but as Tommy’s dad. Tamra Brown plays a hilariously unconvincing Ellen Degeneres imitator. It’s bad on purpose for the film.

So Tommy hires homeless man James played by the fantastic Biff Wiff. Biff has made a career out of playing homeless dudes in shows and movies, and I realized he also played Rick in Everything, Everywhere, All At Once. The man is a treat every time he shows up in a film, full of energy and charisma. Seriously this dude’s IMDB profile is full of “homeless man” credits.

Tommy eventually meets up with Maddy played by the adorable Anna Kendrick who tells him that she is also playing the game. The two agree to hang out for the month until their time is up, and eventually start having feels for one another. Maybe it’s just the shared trauma of being hunted for sport bringing them together. Or maybe it’s real feelings. I don’t know, I’ve only been hunted for sport on a darkweb game once and it wasn’t as interesting as you’d think. Instead of trying to kill me the contestants won if they got a full hand slap on my bare ass. It’s not as sexy as you’d think.

Is this film worth watching? Sure. I enjoyed it, it was definitely not as formulaic as the two hundred billion other versions of this genre I’ve seen in recent years, and the cast is great. There’s not much in the way of twists but I don’t think you’re going into a movie like this expecting it. And they do a few things to keep the film fresh, like having Tommy interact with the crew and giving the hunters silly outfits.

Studios shouldn’t be allowed to do movies about people being hunted for sport on the darkweb until someone produces an actual instance of this happening.

Rating: B