Comedian Jerrod Carmichael is officially a triple threat. The writer and performer can now add director to his bio, making his debut with the pitch-black suicide comedy “On the Count of Three,” in which he co-stars opposite Christopher Abbott. The film, which Carmichael directed from a script written by “The Carmichael Show” writer Ari Katcher, who co-wrote with Ryan Welch, premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. It arrives in theaters on the heels of his revealing and intimate comedy special, “Rothaniel,” which recently bowed on HBO Max, as well as a stint hosting one of the weirder episodes of “Saturday Night Live” in recent memory. “On the Count of Three” announces Carmichael as a filmmaker to watch, with a distinct point of view and a willingness to dive into the darker parts of the psyche, using comedy as a conduit to access those painful places.
The film opens in medias res, with lifelong best friends Kevin (Abbott) and Val (Carmichael) about to shoot each other in the head outside of a strip club at 10 in the morning. Rewinding a few hours, we come to find out how these best friends found themselves there, which begins with Val getting a promotion at the Feed & Seed shop where he works, and attempting to hang himself in the bathroom while his co-worker sings Travis Tritt’s “It’s a Great Day to Be Alive” at the urinal. Val’s failure leads him to break Kevin out of the psychiatric hospital where he’s been committed for attempting suicide himself, because Val thinks the only way to get it right is for the best friends to do it together. However, Kevin, a newly freed man, blanches. He wants one last day.
So begins the darkly demented “This is Your Life” journey upon with Kevin and Val embark, driving around town in a yellow Jeep. They run into Kevin’s school bully, pay a visit to their favorite boss at the dirt bike track, and pop in on Val’s abusive, absentee father (J.B. Smoove) to collect an outstanding debt. Val tries to make amends with his ex (Tiffany Haddish), and Kevin cooks up a plan to exert justice on his abuser, a child psychologist named Dr. Brenner (Henry Winkler). Along the way, they will rob a gas station, listen to Papa Roach and enjoy the feeling of life’s shackles evaporating during their last day on Earth.
