The Hero's Journey aka My Life aka the Caleb Johnston Story (I'm Caleb)

The first of Joel Haver's planned 12 feature films in one year, The Hero's Journey aka My Life aka the Caleb Johnston Story (I'm Caleb), highlights the all too relevant plight of young people left behind by a meaningless society. While Caleb (Haver) appeared to find some semblance of purpose in his teenage years through his friendship with his best friend Kevin (Trent Lenkarski) and girlfriend Stacey (Elizabeth Boudreau), they grew up while he stayed the same. After they break up, Caleb lives in his car and lays his soul bare in a mockumentary highlighting the woes of 21st-century alienation.

Caleb is a highly relatable protagonist with goals and ambitions but lacks the direction to enact them meaningfully, highlighted as he blows his merger funds on online poker. There's sorrow and heartache at the center of this story, but it also showcases the importance of a strong network of family and friends who can step in when things get too rough. The Hero's Journey was a poignant story filled with enough humor to keep things engaging, but most of all, it solidified Haver as a filmmaker capable of highlighting the struggles of aimless millennials.

The Hero's Journey A mockumentary-basically a fake documentary-where Joel plays Caleb, and Caleb directs a documentary about Caleb's life. And this fictional documentary, ironically, succeeds in its real purpose: letting us get to know its creator... Caleb, in this case. Because not only do we observe Caleb's actions, but through Caleb's directing, we see, uncover... maybe even understand? Caleb.

A character with plenty of struggles, treated with as much delicacy and honesty as possible-Caleb, seen through Caleb's eyes.

The roughness is not a flaw, the roughness is the point, the point is to watch Caleb through Caleb's eyes.

I usually try not to take shots at indie films, but I also feel like Joel tends to pit his brand of no-budget filmmaking against industry in general, so I think that makes his films fair game.

I've skimmed through his features before and really haven't had any draw, but even so I'm surprised by the extent to which this film is actually unwatchable.

Like, I get that these aren't necessarily for me, so who cares if they work for me or not. But Joel doesn't exactly pull his punches when taking pot shots at other artists films when they don't cater to his tastes. Then he goes off to provide an alternative, and he rolls up with this garbage?

The Caleb Johnston story is a boring film about a foolish character. Based on Joel's previous videos about a schmuck with social problems, someone told Joel it was a good idea to give the world ninety minutes of this cringe individual.

My biggest problem with this movie is none of the characters are smart enough to be interesting. In order to relate to anyone or their struggles would require me to deform my perception to match the many "quirks" of these characters. The way they talk (a lot of swearing), the references to Tiktok trends, and a cringy scene at the end where Caleb talks to his mom about video games.

Besides that, the strangeness of Caleb unsettles me. Why does he smash his phone so he cannot receive calls? Why doesn't he just apply for a job at Mcdonalds and stay with a coworker? Its clear even Joel doesn't think Caleb is smart, as he uses a deep voice that people use when they imitate stupid people. So why are we following this character?

In the end, The Hero's Journey is an unfortunate film. In Joel's attempt to reach out to his audience and their unique challenges, he creates a stupid character that makes no progress in life. Maybe that is most of Joel's audience, and I'm just out of the loop?

Fascinating to me that the only review here is from an account with no prior reviews or history. Also, what a confusing argument that the only way a character can be interesting is by being smart. Watch any Coen brothers film, I dare you.

Regardless, this is a messy, earnest, personally-driven little film that deeply understands modern-day alienation. What I love about Caleb is that he's constantly gamifying the world around him so that basic necessitates like making money, content, and human connections makes sense to him. But he's just out of touch enough that he's constantly setting himself up for failure. The world around him moves faster than he does, which as a post-pandemic piece of media rings really true for me.

Excellent call backs, subtle storytelling, and compelling performances makes this one to watch. While not the most accessible, and occasionally meandering, I believe this is one of Joel's strongest works to date.