Self Reliance, on Hulu

The dark web must be jumping the shark if it would bother with Thomas Walcott. It is not entirely fair to call him a loser. He just had a few setbacks and has temporarily given up. When they recruit him for their survival show, he figures he has nothing to lose in director-screenwriter-star Jake Johnson’s Self Reliance (no hyphen), which premieres Friday on Hulu.

Walcott lives with him mother, but he hardly sees her or anyone else. He is still reeling from and baffled by his longtime girlfriend’s decision to dump him. Consequently, Walcott figures he has little to lose when a Danish dark web outfit recruits him to be their hunters’ latest prey. They obviously have money, since they hired Andy Samberg (playing his debt-ridden self) to make the initial contact.

Weirdly, he is pretty confident he can exploit the rules long enough to survive his designated thirty days. As long as he with someone, the hunters cannot strike. Yet, his mother and family refuse to indulge what they assume is his delusion. Instead, he hires a homeless man to be his shadow, until another player reaches out. Maddy expresses interest in teaming up and when he meets her, he happily agrees, but the dark web “ninja production assistants” keep warning him not to feel too safe.

Johnson’s script is intermittently amusing, but it overwhelmingly favors comedy over the Most Dangerous Game­-style thriller elements. The ratio would be 90/10 or greater. Fortunately, Johnson and Anna Kendrick bring a lot of energy to the film. They develop an odd but effectively syncopated bantering rhythm that earns most of the films laughs.

The Last Five Years: Off-Broadway Goes Big Screen

The title of Jamie Wellerstein’s bestselling debut novel sounds nauseatingly pretentious, but Light Out of Darkness happens to be a hat tip to Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along, so all is forgiven. Regardless, his remarkable early success will put strain on his marriage to a would-be Broadway actress. We know it will not last, because he walks out in the first scene. We will subsequently see how it all unraveled in Richard LaGravenese’s adaptation of Jason Robert Brown’s Off-Broadway musical, The Last Five Years (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Wellerstein is leaving and it looks like he is never coming back. Cathy Hiatt is obviously devastated, but it gives her the first opportunity to show her range with the nakedly revealing feature spot, “Still Hurting.” There is more to this story than first appears. Wellerstein was once reasonably in love with Hiatt. It was he who first suggested they live together, before he eventually proposed. Yet, Wellerstein’s immediate success caused friction. Yes, it brought him into close proximity of literary groupies and trampy editorial assistants, but it is really caused more of a psychological disconnect between the brashly confident Wellerstein and the increasingly despondent Wellerstein née Hiatt.

Although the original stage production somewhat resembled Love Letters in its stripped down, dueling song-and-monologue structure, LaGravenese opens it up quite nicely. He brings it out onto the streets of New York and transforms the musical numbers into dramatic exchanges.

Frankly, the real issue with LFY is common to many new book musicals today. You might consider it the Rent effect. There simply is not enough emotional diversity to the score. Each number requires the cast to start at practically a crescendo level, maintaining the notes and the soul-baring wails. Even the show’s “novelty song,” “Shiksa Goddess” requires Wellerstein to belt out at the top of his lungs. It is more effective when a show goes up and down the scale. Give us some slow groovers and easy loopers, but with catchy melodies. Then hit us with the show-stopper.

Be that as it may, Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan do everything that is asked of them and then some. As a veteran of Broadway (the way better than you’ve heard Bonnie & Clyde) and Smash, Jordan exhibits the chops you would expect, but the strength and clarity of Kendrick exceeds the expectations established by Pitch Perfect and her Tony nomination for High Society at the precocious age of twelve. They also have appealing chemistry together in the early days and convincingly push each away during the later bad times. Together, they make the arc of the relationship feel true.

Much of LFY’s narrative context and on-screen communication is delivered through song, often giving it a rock opera-ish vibe. Necessarily, one song often leads into another, reinforcing the samey-ness of the score. Nevertheless, Wellerstein’s climatic “If I Didn’t Believe in You” stands out as a dramatic equalizer, largely regaining the audience sympathy he lost in the opening scenes. Cinematographer Steven Meizler makes it all sparkle in a way that subtly evokes the big colorful Golden Age musicals, but in a way the still feels contemporary. If you like the sound of most post-Rent Broadway musicals that are not period productions, LaGravenese’s adaptation should be like catnip. For the rest of us, the two leads manage to carry the day through sheer gumption. Recommended for fans of movie musicals, The Last Five Years opens this Friday (2/13) in New York, at the Village East.

The Voices: Satrapi Tells an American Psycho Tale

Do you think talking cats are cute, like Garfield? Well, think again. Anthropomorphism can be a sinister business, but don’t worry, talking dogs are still cool. Regrettably, poor luckless Jerry Hickfang hears them both in Marjane Satrapi’s The Voices (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Forklift-driving Hickfang is clearly trying too hard to be liked by his co-workers at the Milton faucet and bath factory, but he seems harmless enough. Of course, they do not hear the conversations he has with his cat, Mr. Whiskers, and his loyal canine, Bosco. Mr. Whiskers does not suffer fools gladly. In fact, he is all in favor of killing them. In contrast, the dim-witted but affectionate Bosco always tries to find the best in people. Fortunately, good old Bosco can usually counterbalance Mr. Whiskers’ devilish influence, but it gets difficult when Hickfang is under emotional stress.

Despite what he tells his court-ordered psychiatrist, Hickfang has gone off his meds (hence the conversations with his pets). To make matters worse, getting the brush-off from Fiona, the British office sexpot, will hardly help his mental stability. Still, Lisa, her slightly more demur office-mate, continues to carry a torch for him. She might be his perfect match, but it is hard to envision Hickfang developing a healthy relationship, especially when we see his apartment without the happy haze of his dementia.

Along with Mississippi Grind at this year’s Sundance, The Voices ought to give Ryan Reynolds’ career a new lease on life. If nothing else, he ought to be able to find plentiful cartoon voice-over work, because his voices for Mr. Whiskers and Bosco are terrific. Who knew he could do such a pitch-perfect snippy Scottish accent for the former? He also does quite an impressive job conveying Hickfang’s naïve earnestness, along with his mounting mania. He is a tragic monster, in the Lon Chaney, Jr.-Wolfman tradition, who does not want to kill, but puts himself in that position through his own disastrous, but understandable, decision-making.

Frankly, it is hard to understand why it takes Hickfang so long to notice Anna Kendrick’s Lisa, but she definitely adds to the film’s energy and chemistry. Yet, the x-factor might be Jacki Weaver, who adds considerable humanity and authority to the film in her relatively brief turn as the over-worked Dr. Warren.

It is hard to imagine this is the same Satrapi who made Persepolis and Chicken with Plums, but she displays the same eye for visuals, employing color in bold and distinctive ways. When she contrasts Hickfang’s lunacy-tinged perspective with the film’s objective reality, it is quite effective. Cinematographer Maxime Alexandre gives it a warm, stylish sheen that somehow manages to feel slightly off, in the right way.

On paper, it all might sound rather sad and grubby, but it is actually a rather elegant little macabre tragedy. Recommended for genre audiences and fans of Reynolds and Kendrick, who want to see the thesps in a radically different context, The Voices opens this Friday (2/6) in New York, at the AMC Empire.