Ty Watches "Self Reliance"

Before watching "Saltburn" I watched "Self Reliance". I heard a lot about this movie prior to watching it. I'm a Jake Johnson fan, and he has been on a bit of a podcast media tour promoting this movie. All I needed was to hear the plot and I was in.

The long and short of it all, Johnson's character gets asked to be on the dark web's number one reality show where he is being hunted. If he can last for 30 days he wins a million dollars. The catch, he cannot be alone. Ever. If he is with someone else, he cannot be harmed. The people who run the show will not go after him as long as he is with someone. Sounds intense, right? Well, while there are some wild scenes, scenes that made me jump, this is a pretty funny movie too. Johnson said as much during all of his podcast appearances. The movie is also a tight 90 minutes. This has everything I want in a movie. It is all wrapped in a nice little package that is wildly easy to digest. So when I watched, I had pretty high hopes.

The movie hit them all. From start to finish I was in. I am a fan of Johnson, especially when he does stuff that is a change of pace from "New Girl". Here he is a down on his luck dude that wants some more excitement in his life. And when Andy Samberg shows up, playing himself, that is just another feather in the movie's cap. I am a very, very big Samberg fan. And when Johnson decides to take this opportunity, that is when the movie achieves its goal. It is a pretty wild ride from there on out. Johnson tries to tell his family and they do not believe him at all. They think he is losing it. There are moments where I kind of thought he was going through a mental break. Johnson decides to hire an unhoused person, played by Biff Wiff, and they have some nice chemistry with each other. I liked the way they played off one another. Johnson eventually meets up with Anna Kendrick and they form an alliance. The two of them have worked together before, and it shows on screen. I liked watching the two of them in scenes together. I would totally buy them as a couple. But, the whole idea for this movie, the dark web reality hunting show, is always a threat. At any moment I thought that Johnson could get bumped off, and that kept me on edge. Whenever he was alone, even for the brief moments he was, it legitimately scared me. And Johnson played that very well. I truly loved that when it was all going down, he would implore his family members that this was all real, but they still brushed it off, with hilarious results. When he calls his mom at work, that was a pretty wonderfully hilarious scene. When she mispronounces Andy Samberg's name, that was comedy gold. Even as the movie builds to its conclusion, the immediate threat and disbelief from everyone else, it is still there and still freaks me out. Johnson plays all this so well. You could tell this movie was a labor of love. I read that he wrote it during the lockdown when COVID was raging. That shows. But it is not a pandemic movie. That much is clear.

I definitely recommend watching this movie. It has good genre blending and it is a nice, quick watch. I enjoyed the hell out of it, and I think you will too. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Make Shorter Movies

I was listening to "Comedy Bang! Bang!" earlier today and Scott Aukerman brought up a pretty good point about the length of movies. He had Jake Johnson on as his main guest and they started a conversation about the most recent "Spider Verse" movie.

Aukerman mentioned how much he liked it, but that he was annoyed at the ending. I heard a lot of people make this complaint as well. I thought it was fine because it means more of these movies. I want all that I can get at this point. But that is not what I took away from all of this. While talking about the movie, Aukerman mentioned that they should just make one five hour movie. Johnson said that he didn't know how long each movie is, but that he is fine with whatever they do because he loves these movies.

But Johnson did mention that he is not a fan of super long movies. Aukerman agreed. They both said that 90 minutes is the perfect amount of time to watch a movie. Johnson said that he loves Martin Scorsese, but he hasn't seen many of his recent movies because they all approach three hours. Aukerman said he has seen "Killer of the Flower Moon", which he liked, but he also said that it felt very long. I sat back and thought about this as I listened to them gripe about it, and I have to say, I fully agree with their assessment.

Movies are very, very long now. A movie I love, "Uncut Gems", is about two and a half hours long. I have a lot of love for the movie, but there are definitely things they could have cut from the movie. The whole scene with The Weeknd felt unnecessary. The constant fights with his wife felt tacked on. I wanted more of the family stuff or the Kevin Garnett stuff. They could have cut things here and there and made that a two hour movie with ease. And I still would love it. I am a big time fan of the "John Wick" franchise, and each movie seems to get longer and longer. These movies keep me intrigued, but still, they can cut some stuff down and make these movies a hair over two hours, no problem. I enjoy watching Judd Apatow movies, but he keeps making two plus hour comedies. That is way, way too much time for a comedy. Ninety minutes should be the hard cut for a comedy. I also love sci fi, and the fact that those movies keep pushing two and a half hours is nuts. "Blade Runner" is 1 hour 57 minutes. That is kind of perfect. I'd so much rather watch "Blade Runner" than "Interstellar". A movie that clocks in at 90 minutes, or even 1 hour 45 minutes, that is the exact amount of time that I want to sit and watch a movie from start to finish. A movie that length will keep my attention, I won't squirm in my seat, and that feels like the perfect amount of time to tell a well thought out story. These "epics" almost feel like the writers and directors don't know how to finish the movie, so they just keep filming and writing more and more. It is like the movie "Babylon". They had no idea how to end that, so they kept making it and eventually had to end it. They did that with a death, the most common way to end these "epics". Movies that are shorter get you in, hold your attention for the allotted time and get you out. That's the way it should be.

We need more 90-115 minute movies. That would rule. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Watches "Win it All"

I come to you today with yet another movie review and recommendation. Yesterday I watched another one that I have been putting off for a while, and I wish I hadn't. The movie is called "Win It All". It stars Jake Johnson, who also co-wrote the movie, and it is about an addictive gambler who tries to turn his life around but runs into some bad luck. Again, a cliché story, but this movie was so well made.

I think the reason why “Win it All” works is Johnsons' performance is magnetic. He is more known for comedy and being on "New Girl", but giving him a role like this, a little more drama and less comedy, and he shined. I have said it a lot on the site, and I will say it again, I love when actors and musicians take a chance. Johnson did just that and he crushed. He has become somewhat of Joe Swanmberg's muse as well. Swanberg co-wrote the movie with Johnson and he directed as well. Swanmberg is one of these "mumblecore" guys. That genre of movie can be dull and boring, but "Win It All" was not. This movie moved well and transitioned properly. It had comedy and drama. It was "Uncut Gems" very light. "Uncut Gems" is one of my all time favorite movies by the way, and that movie is super intense. It is a relief to watch a movie that deals with gambling that doesn't give me a panic attack. That is "Win It All".

As I was saying, Swanberg and Johnson have a great rapport now. They have done a few movies together, and they are all, at the very least, watchable. None of them are bad. Sure they can be a little blah, but they are fine. With "Win It All" they take it to another level. Johnson is superb. I cannot say enough great things about him in this role. He is the star, he owns the movie, you cannot take your eyes off of him and I was rooting for him to turn his life around. Swanberg does an excellent job of making a more mainstream style movie. There is still some of that "mumblecore" direction in there, but it doesn't take over. The rest of the cast is really good as well. Joe Lo Truglio plays Johnson's brother. He has his act together and all he wants is to help his brother. Truglio is a great comedic actor, and he does a lot of funny stuff in this movie. But his dramatic stuff really hit. He was solid. Aislinn Derbez was the love interest. I had never heard of her before watching this movie. She was outstanding. She was believable. She had a ton of chemistry with Johnson. She was great. Keegan Michael Key played his sponsor. It was nice to see Key not do any comedy. I love his comedic work, but I felt he was kind of falling in a trap of only doing broad comedy. So to see him do a role like this was refreshing. He did a very good job. And they had a bunch of real life poker players in the movie in scenes where they played real games of cards. This added a whole other level to the minimal stress in the movie. It made the games feel real. I found myself really into everything that was happening in this movie. I also really like that it was ninety minutes long.

I will say it again, Johnson was electric and I want to see more stuff like this out of him. And I like high stakes movies that find a way to not take itself so seriously. I also really enjoyed the final scene in the movie. It made me hopeful. If you have 90 minutes free and like redemption style movies, check out "Win It All". It is solid.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.