Movie Review On the Count of Three

On the Count of Three

Directed by Jerrod Carmichael

Written by Ari Katcher, Ryan Welch

Starring Jerrod Carmichael, Christopher Abbott, Tiffany Haddish, J.B Smoove

Released May 13th, 2022

Mental health experts will tell you that suicidal people will seem happier right before they take their life. It doesn’t always happen that way, but in most cases euphoria sets in once death is certain. The dark dramatic comedy, On the Count of Three, from star and director Jerrod Carmichael, pictures suicide from a different perspective. On the Count of Three is a suicide comedy, a dark comedy, of course, and it captures the kind of feelings mental health experts see in suicidal patients. 

On the Count of Three follows lifelong friends Val (Jerrod Carmichael) and Kevin (Michael Abbott) on their last day on Earth. Val and Kevin have made a suicide pact. The two plan to kill each other after they’ve spent the day settling affairs and taking revenge on one man in particular whom they blame for their pain. Both men were products of abuse at the hands of a trusted professional. The experience shaped the rest of their lives. Val sulked into a life of routine menial work. Kevin drifted toward crime.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Movie Review The Forgiven

The Forgiven 

Directed by John Michael McDonagh

Written by John Michael McDonagh

Starring Jessica Chastain, Ralph Fiennes, Matt Smith, Caleb Landry Jones, Christopher Abbott

Release Date July 1st, 2022

The Forgiven was made as a combination of the rich people ennui of The Great Gatsby and a moralist critique of the shiftless 1% wasting away on their vast fortunes while callously victimizing the disenfranchised. The film comes up short on both accounts. Written and Directed by John Michael McDonaugh, The Forgiven is sweaty, tired and unfocused outside a few genuinely emotional moments involving a grieving father and the man who killed his son. 

The Forgiven stars Ralph Fiennes and Jessica Chastain as a deeply bored and drifting apart married couple. He’s a doctor and she’s a children’s book author. As a couple they have plenty of money but very little joy. As we meet David and Jo Henninger they are traveling through Morocco and on their way to a distant location in the African desert. There, a long time friend of the couple, Richard (Matt Smith) and his partner Dally (Caleb Landry Jones), are throwing an old school bacchanal of rich people excess.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Movie Review The Wolfman

Wolf Man 

Directed by Leigh Whannell

Written by Leigh Whannell, Corbett Tuck

Starring Christopher Abbott, Julia Garner

Release Date January 17th, 2025

Published January 17th, 2025 

Wolf Man stars Christopher Abbott as Blake Lovell, a loving father in a struggling marriage to Charlotte (Julia Garner). Out of work, Blake spends all of his time with their daughter, Ginger (Matilda Firth), which has caused Charlotte to become resentful of their bond. In an effort to repair their marriage and family, Blake asks Charlotte to come with him to Oregon where his late father lived in a remote cabin. Blake’s eccentric father, Grady (Sam Jaeger), disappeared a while ago and has recently been declared dead. Blake is set to travel to Oregon to clean out the cabin and sees an opportunity for a family vacation. 

Arriving in Oregon in a massive moving van, Blake, Charlotte and Ginger get lost and encounter a man named Derek Kiel (Benedict Hardie), a creepy, haunted man whose own late father was a close friend of Grady. Derek agrees to lead them to Grady’s cabin but on the drive, a man in the center of the road causes Blake to swerve into nearby trees where the truck rolls over. Derek is thrown from the truck and in quick succession, he’s attacked and dragged away by some kind of monster on two legs. The monster also attacks Blake, scratching his arm, just as he’s able to escape with Charlotte and Ginger. The three find Grady’s cabin with the monster fast on their tail.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Movie Review Sanctuary

Sanctuary (2023) 

Directed by Zachary Wigon

Written by Micah Bloomberg

Starring Christopher Abbott, Margaret Qualley 

Release Date May 19th, 2023 

Published 12-13-2023

Playing some late in the year catch up with movies I missed and what luck, Neon sent me a copy of Sanctuary. I've been looking forward to this movie since I saw YouTube Amanda the Jedi rave about this movie coming off of its festival run. Christopher Abbott and Margaret Qualley are two of the terrific young stars on the rise, with Abbott being among the most adventurous and courageous actors working today and Qualley only just starting to come into her own as an actress. Sanctuary is a single set drama about sex, kink, and power dynamics that is darkly comic and insightful. 

Hal (Christopher Abbott) is the heir to a hotel fortune who is about to ascend to the top of the family business. Hal's well respected and revered father has recently passed away and Hal is dealing with conflicting emotions about the idea of being a CEO and trying to live up to the impossible standard set by his father and the unrealistic expectations of his mother. Meanwhile, Hal is maintaining a secret that could endanger his chances of taking over the company. He likes to have a woman come to his various hotel room homes and dominate him. 

Rebecca (Qualley) enters the movie as someone who appears to be a lawyer. She's well coiffed, wearing an expensive suit, and she's here to ask Hal a series of questions that are seemingly coming from the perspective of people who operate his hotel empire. Soon however, the ruse is exposed as the questions become more and more intimate and finally, Hal breaks the the growing tension by accusing Rebecca of going off the script. It turns out, Rebecca is a dominatrix. Her job is to place Hal into humiliating or subservient situations that he gets off on. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media