Two unhappy young men, best friends since childhood, decide to end their lives. This is the blunt, awkward premise of “On the Count of Three,” which begins with the two main characters winding themselves up to blow each other’s heads off.
They find themselves in an alley behind a strip club on a winter’s day in the sad, generic town where they grew up. Directed by Jerrod Carmichael from a script by Ari Katcher and Ryan Welch, the film flashes back and fast-forwards from then on, chronicling the stressful day when Val (played by Carmichael) and Kevin (Christopher Abbott) take their final vows. earth will be .
In ‘Rothaniel’, his new HBO special, Carmichael, a brilliant comedian and cunning performer, explores painful issues of family, sexuality and mental health with humor, insight and unwavering candor. “On the Count of Three,” his directorial debut, which screened at the Sundance Film Festival in 2021, feels like a dry run in a way — not because it’s about the same personal matters, but because it tries to find a comic strip show smooth. enough to face raw, unresolved fear.
Val and Kevin are unhappy in various ways. Early in the day, Kevin is in a mental hospital after a suicide attempt that doesn’t seem to have been his first. Depression has been a fact of his life for a long time. Ultimately, we learn that he was a foster child, a victim of bullying and a survivor of sexual abuse. Val also had a difficult childhood, but his misery seems more acute, fueled by specific frustration and anger rather than slow-burning despair.
Anyway, Val quits his job and takes Kevin out of the hospital, explaining a simple plan that turns out not to be so simple. The complications are not always conclusive. The against-the-clock structure of the film has a playwright feel, with other people showing up on schedule to keep the story moving. These others include Val’s ex-girlfriend (Tiffany Haddish), Kevin’s former therapist (Henry Winkler), and the owner of a dirt bike track where the two friends worked (Lavell Crawford). All those parenthetical names would be a welcome presence in any movie, but they’re more special guest stars in a television episode than characters here.
What keeps “On the Count of Three” interesting isn’t the pile of underlying revelations and contrived plot twists, but Carmichael and Abbott, who fill their roles with sensitivity and genuineness, mostly avoiding the traps of swagger and self-pity that could threaten a movie. about two sad guys with guns. You may not believe everything – or really everything – that happens, but their pain and their love are hard to doubt.
On the count of three
Rated R for guns, smoking, and suicidal thoughts. Running time: 1 hour 26 minutes. In theaters and for rent or sale on Apple TV, Vudu and other streaming platforms and pay TV providers.