Rating: R | Runtime: 86 minutes
Release Date: May 13th, 2022 (USA)
Studio: Annapurna Pictures
Director(s): Jerrod Carmichael
Writer(s): Ari Katcher & Ryan Welch

Guns give insecure men the illusion of power.

Kevin (Christopher Abbott) tried to kill himself three days ago. It wasn’t a cry for help either as he’s battled demons since childhood, trying to hold them at bay by whatever means possible only to find himself unchanged. Val (Jerrod Carmichael) has lived a rough life too, but he’s never thought about suicide until his best friend’s attempt. The numbness he felt upon finding out coupled with the depression that’s set in after realizing the life he’s currently living has become a prison forces him to wonder if maybe Kevin had it right. Maybe they’ve both run their course and the time to end it is now. So, Val breaks him out of the psych ward, puts guns in both their hands, and starts counting to three.

Screenwriters Ari Katcher and Ryan Welch (co-creators of “Ramy” with its star Ramy Youssef) aren’t necessarily breaking the mold when it comes to On the Count of Three putting two men with a death wish and nothing to lose onto a collision course with fate, but they’re definitely using it to deliver a melancholic black comedy that can’t help itself from ultimately providing an uplifting and hopeful message that even the bleakest futures have the potential for joy. Both Val and Kevin need the freedom that having no tomorrow affords to finally do the things they’ve never allowed themselves to do—namely confronting the monsters from their pasts.

Val’s father (J.B. Smoove’s Lyndell) beat him and his mother, terrorizing them to the point where he hasn’t been in contact for over a decade. Kevin’s child psychologist (Henry Winkler’s Dr. Brenner) sexually abused him. They’ve each been let down by figures that should have protected them, subsequently becoming the only person the other could ever truly rely on. That’s why Val knows his idea of double suicide can work. But despite Kevin having just attempted it on his own, the knee-jerk prospect supplies whiplash just the same. So, he asks for the day first. One last hurrah to get their affairs in order and perhaps some payback too. Unsurprisingly, nothing goes quite to plan.

Therein lies the brilliance of the film. The script and Carmichael’s direction (this is his debut) propels us forward for an eighty-six-minute thrill ride with tension constantly being ratcheted up for what seems like a perpetually postponed release. That’s what happens when you have no plan or rhyme and reason. Val and Kevin are running full speed towards the unknown. The most innocuous moments of the day might bring the most painful trauma flooding back while the most dangerous ones might supply introspective pauses that make them reconsider what they’re doing. In the end, however, we realize that their love for one another is immovable no matter what they decide.

It hits hard too. There are so many instances of heartfelt or painful recognition and confirmation from Kevin’s fear of violence contrasting with his desire to enact it to their old boss Donny (Lavell Crawford) proving just how easy it was to be what these kids needed when those who should have refused. We’re experiencing an episode of “This is your life” via hindsight that has as much chance of guaranteeing they’ll pull the trigger as it does throw the guns away. Abbott and Carmichael bare their souls on-screen as a result, their anguished suffering present for the world to see as clearly as their characters have from the beginning. It’s a wake-up call that’s unafraid to acknowledge the complexity of existential terror.

---

Jerrod Carmichael and Christopher Abbott in ON THE COUNT OF THREE.