‘I don’t really know my mom…’
Jake Johnson is great. I never caught New Girl, but his cinematic output, which is basically just him playing the same down-on-his-luck but likeable character over and over sparks a lot of joy in me. I could watch these movies forever. Ride the Eagle doesn’t break the habit of a lifetime. Happily, it also features a great supporting cast…
Leif (Johnson) is a pot smoking loser who plays ‘percussion’ in a band named Restaurant. A classic Jake Johnson character in other words. When his estranged mum (Susan Sarandon) abruptly dies, Leif inherits her cabin but only on the proviso that he completes a series of bizarre tasks. This results in a number of altercations and misunderstandings with a maniac named Carl (J.K. Simmons) and a reunion with Leif’s former girlfriend Audrey (D’Arcy Carden).
A great cast then. Aside from Johnson, Carden (fresh from scene stealing performances in both The Good Place and Barry) is also one of the most likable actors currently plying their trade in the film industry and the scenes they share together pop and fizz with shared experience. Sarandon is perfect as Leif’s unreliable but loving mother Honey, and Simmons does lots of on brand shouting as Honey’s on-off lover. Sure, as with many of Johnson’s movies (he co-wrote this one with director Trent O’Donnell), nothing much happens here, but there is a place on the cinematic landscape for quiet, contemplative movies and Ride the Eagle fits snugly within that landscape.
Ride the Eagle is perhaps a little too comedically broad to hit the emotional heights that it aspires to, but it is an easy watch and an affecting one. Another solid entry into the Jake Johnson oeuvre.