Final Rating: 3/5
Not quite a movie about cults, not quite a home invasion movie, Self-Help, from director Erik Bloomquist, is inventively subversive in service of a larger message about “getting out of your own way.”
In Self-Help, college student Olivia (Landry Bender) visits her mother over a long weekend, only to discover she’s been enrolled in a weekend self-help retreat led by “Truth Ambassador,” Curtis Clark (Jake Weber). From the start, Clark and his retreat look exactly like a cult in a horror movie:
Everyone is wearing Halloween masks. The members worship Clark – one even saying so explicitly before being excommunicated for a minor rule infraction. And, of course, Clark has collected an exorbitant sum of money from each of them. When confronted directly about how “cultish” everything looks, Clark surprises Olivia. He himself escaped from a cult once. “Cults want people to stay,” he says, “I want them to move on.”
Weber is brilliant as Clark. It’s clear why people down on their luck would look to someone so well-spoken and charismatic for advice. Digging deeper reveals a man with little to no past or internet footprint, and unclear goals. However, he also never tries to harm anyone physically, and seems genuine in his desire to help people help themselves. Notably, this is a horror film with few deaths and multiple characters who arguably leave the film in a better position than they started, at least in some ways.
Clark preaches “radical autonomy,” inspiring people to move towards a singular goal by any means necessary. He encourages “gestures of defiance,” in which people follow their most dangerous impulses in service of personal growth. When one of his acolytes has a breakdown over not being able to attend the birth of her granddaughter, Clark reminds her that she wanted to start a new life and advises her to cease contact with her existing family. Another member, struggling with macular degeneration, is egged on when he has the idea to self-impose blindness instead of waiting for his sight to go. It’s not hard to argue that Clark is responsible for what happens to his followers, but everything they go through is, technically at least, their own doing.
While Clark’s workshop could just as easily be called Self-Harm for the damage its members do to themselves, Olivia’s arc embodies a healthier – if imperfect – approach to the title. Olivia deals with social anxiety and decision paralysis due to childhood trauma. Her relationship with her mother is fraught almost to the point of nonexistence. The weekend retreat could be a chance to reconnect with her parent, but instead she is faced with all the ways her past impacts her present.
Barely a day into the retreat, Olivia is repeatedly forced to either intervene to stop someone’s self-harm or immediately reckon with the consequences of failing to do so. In talking to her mother, Olivia explores whether it’s worth reconnecting in the first place. During the emotional climax of the retreat, Olivia asks her mother “Do you even love me?” “I used to.”
The core story for Self-Help is great. The mystery around Clark is compelling, and Bender shines as Olivia. The supporting cast and their stories are not as strong. Bloomquist himself plays Owen, a man revealed to have dealt with Clark before, but whose story ultimately fizzles out. Madison Lintz is fun to watch as Olivia’s best friend Sophie and gets some nice moments. That said, Sophie gets many more moments that are just her feebly saying “I don’t know, maybe we shouldn’t leave,” as an excuse to keep Olivia from following her better instincts.
Bloomquist’s ability to subvert expectations is strong. Self-Help keeps the audience constantly on their toes. It’s a bit thin in places, but it makes for a fun watch.
