‘On the Count of Three’: Jerrod Carmichael's Messy Directorial Debut [Review]

Childhood best friends form a suicide-pact in comedian Jerrod Carmichael’s feature-directing debut “On the Count of Three.” This is a dark buddy comedy, all over the place in its message, that struggles to find any sort of tonal coherence in its 80-minute runtime, but the sheer unevenness of the film is part of its schizoid charm.

Carmichael stars as Val, a depressed slacker who quits his job right after getting promoted and, just minutes later, tries to commit suicide in a men’s bathroom stall — he fails miserably (the belt was attached too low). A few hours after that, he busts best friend Kevin (Christopher Abbott) from a psychiatric hospital. The bleach- haired, quick-tempered Kevin, also recently tried kill himself. Et voila! A suicide pact is formed, they decide that before the day is done they will point guns at each other’s heads and on the count of three …

With 24 hours left on earth, Carmichael’s dark comedy has its two depressed thespians facing their pasts; Val wants to make things right with his long-term girlfriend (Tiffany Haddish), and estranged father (a miscast J. B. Smoove). Kevin, on the other hand, wants revenge against a former therapist who abused him as a kid and his childhood bully, now an Iraq vet with a trophy wife and baby.

Abbott, known for choosing dark roles in indies, is the clearcut highlight here as the Papa Roach-listening, mentally-deranged ticking time bomb. Carmichael is a little shakier as Val, unable to find the right tone between drama and comedy to make his character work. The bond between Carmichael and Abbott doesn’t add up either. The movie’s best moments are when Abbott lets-er rip solo, and Carmichael, on the sidelines, just watches the physical comedy prowess of his co-star.

It doesn’t help that Ari Katcher and Ryan Welch‘s script feels like the first draft of a movie rather than a genuinely composed story of two men nearing the abyss. The hijinks are too obvious, the characters too emotionally limited and the dialogue too crudely unnecessary. It only gets more extreme and overwrought as it goes along, climaxing with a cop speed-chase ripped straight out of the criminals-on-the-lam-playbook.

SCORE: C+