Released as a world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, Jarrod Carmichael’s managerial debut “ On The Count of Three ” is a socially conscious appeal served through dark humor. Jarrod himself acted in this movie as an important promoter. Also, there's Christopher Abbot as his friend Kevin. This engaging story with perfect performances portrays the lives of two mentally unstable people and how they approach their life and death throughout the story. This movie really depicts how every person’s inner struggle is different. Some cry their silent gashes while others violently express their wrathfulness, and when they eventually choose to die in the pursuit of relief, it's precisely there that flicks like “ On the Count of Three ” show them a hint of a stopgap. The occasion of the movie becomes an impeccable approach beyond the review of its craft. The movie commences its trip with two stylish musketeers facing their swimming death, putting each other at gunpoint. A single shot followed by a count of one to three in their pulsing voice indicates the failed attempt. But why are these two youthful men tempting their death in this way? In the hunt for that answer, let’s embark on a trip with the plot of this movie.
Spoilers Ahead
The Death suck And Its Two Different Victims
With an essential raw vibe fused with the tune of punk, the movie shows some earlier moments of the nearly-dead lives of two youthful men. One of them is a homemade drudge named Val, whose internal fermentation doesn't show an egregious reason from the morning, but he's not holding it up well. Val’s silent breakdown is a true representative of the harsh reality where people’s lives are laid out in a grid where no one can understand their inner struggles. Presumably, Val’s external shell is just as calm as his inner voice is terrifyingly loud, egging him constantly to choose a suicidal path. Nothing indeed affects his life, whether it’s a phone call from his gal or job creation, except for killing himself with a belt around his neck. Being a small earner, he presumably suffers from instability and avoids commitment. On the verge of his muted dislocation, Val grips his cigarettes desperately and emits his grief-like bank in the air. On the other hand, Kevin is a clinically diagnosed internal case whose long-term treatment has been done in a shelter. But to no mileage, Kevin constantly tried self-murder. While Val’s internal wreckage is implied, Kevin is a chaotic personality who listens to death essence as recreation and verbally abuses a therapist. But Kevin’s immediate consummation forced him to yield, which shows the actuality of humanity nearly inside his noisy brain.
Val thinks that death is the only way to escape the pain and comes to Kevin. As they escape the shelter, Kevin is explosively prompted by Val to commit self-murder. Then, Kevin doesn’t want his friend to choose this path, but the counterreaction of depression makes Kevin sympathetic to his stylish friend. But the plot twist is Kevin himself. He has a conflict outside. The moment he's freed from the captivity of the shelter, the taste of living in his life wakes him up. He chooses death as the alternate option and asks Val to give him the day as his last day on earth. So Kevin designedly dodges Val’s projectile so that he can live a little longer. Kevin’s disorganized studies now suggest to Val a commodity that's far beyond his idea. Kevin wants to kill his psychiatrist, Dr. Brenner, who molested him as a child. Then, a dark verity behind his long-term internal sickness is revealed. But the extent to which his sense of humanity will allow him to do this remains questionable. The two stylish musketeers arrive at Brenner’s clinic with a brace of shotguns.
And with the fire of revenge burning in Kevin’s eyes, he admits that the actuality of a small gun to a hysterical man gives him the vision of strength, but Val remains calm. They both stand so close to their end that no external influence can move them. But Brenner still has some time left in his life, and so do Val and Kevin. When they set out to kill the croaker, he's not present there at that moment, and the receptionist tells them to come at 545 in the autumn. After that, when Kevin grabs his last mess on earth, he finds his annoying old schoolmate Brian catching up with him. Brian is so fulfilled in his life with his woman and sprat that Kevin can not tolerate him. Indeed when Brian drags up the old days of the academy humiliating Kevin, he feels a little tortured and gets out of that place. Showing a little rage outdoors, he thinks of vengeance. Though he felt an appetite to live before, far and wide and everything started driving him again to kill himself. But he calms himself into getting done with his untreated business.
Val tries to survive the last moment of his life and goes to a good friend’s garage for bike racing. While Kevin and Val begin a death race with the bikes, Val falls off and injures himself. Without detention, Kevin takes him to the original store to buy tapes and drugs. But the shopkeeper ignores them, and Kevin can not stand that presently. Bringing out his gun at him, Kevin scares him to hear them. But at least after the trouble, he pays him the bill. Picking up the gun in his hand is an unresistant cry for help. He just wants to express the sadness of his neglected life. Actually, he's neither a killer nor a gangbanger. He's just a disgraced person in society who'll leave the world in many moments, but no bone will indeed watch. But Val does some isolated work, which confuses them at first, but latterly we understand his ambition. Val, along with Kevin, visits his fugitive father, Lyndell, to collect some plutocrats that his father formerly stole from him. When they fight over this, Kevin injures Lyndell with essence and escapes with Val. Val is also seriously injured, which is nothing to compare with his wounded mind. On the way back, Val tells Kevin the reason for avoiding his gal. He doesn’t want to tie the person he loves to the melancholy of his life. Showing a ring to Kevin, Val explains he failed to propose to his gal. It’s because he allowed a small ring and some social liabilities that won't bring any happiness in his life, he'll make his nut’s life miserable as well. So he decides to immolate himself without living with this burden.
Val’s broken frame now takes shape, but the source of his grief is still unknown. And if we look around, we’ll find thousands of people like him suffering from idiopathic depression every day, which is illustrated by the story of Val. Now Val stops by his gal Natasha’s door, where he offers her the plutocrat he took from his father’s place, but Natasha doesn’t want that plutocrat. She hypercritically refuses the help, as she doesn’t want that plutocrat, but wants her mate by her side. She indeed tells her swain to see a therapist bravely without running from his problems. Val understands the affection and power of love. Just like how Lyndell squinched up his nonage, Val doesn’t want to repeat the same thing with his child. Rather, he wants to give his future child the life it deserves. So he gives himself an alternate chance to make everything right. He eventually starts walking towards the light, leaving behind the action that pushed him to commit self-murder, but whom will he tell? The spree of self-murder has formerly spread through Kevin’s pores, and he has gone for the kill. Kevin arrives in Val’s auto, drunk to the essence delirium of pop Roach’s “ The Last Resort ”, to take the life of Brian, whom he met in the morning, but seeing him happy with his woman and child, Kevin changes his mind. He doesn't want to give that innocent child the trauma that he entered from nonage and the miserable life he has led so far. So, defeating all the demons in his brain, Kevin becomes a mortal again.
When Kevin returns, Val tells him that he wants to live. When Kevin starts to argue about that, Val informs him about his gal’s gestation. But Kevin still doesn’t want to back down from killing Dr. Brenner to get his vengeance. And Val stands coming to him. Kevin arrives at the clinic to approach Brenner with a gun, but the gun comes out to be empty, so Brenner wrestles the gun from his hand. From the outside, Val thinks Brenner may have gotten over Kevin, so he shoots him to save his friend.
‘ On The Count Of Three ’ Ending Explained How Do Val And Kevin Emblematize The Two Different Forms Of Life?
Val, whose will to live is revived, becomes the killer of a person whom he slightly knows. While Kevin is happy about this, Val doesn’t want to squinch up again. So he flees the scene with Kevin. But with the entire police force behind them, Val and Kevin realize their end is near. Either they must surrender or decide to die. But Val is still an optimist about the dream he chose, so he finds a new way to escape. Val and Kevin run down with the bikes from their friend’s garage, but all their sweats go in vain when the end isn't saved. Kevin falls off the bike and injures himself, but he no longer holds grievances. He finds no more wrathfulness in his mind. rather, he becomes positive about his death this time. He encourages Val to immolate their lives according to their preconceived plan. But Val convinces him to surrender to the police so that they will be released one day. This is tragically a twist for Kevin when he sees his friend Val, who prompted him to die, now soliciting him to live for his happiness. But Kevin is determined to break free from all the obstacles, so he doesn’t choose another exhausting life in captivity. Kevin tells Val to condemn him for the murder, and in the blink of an eye, Kevin shoots himself and takes the last leave of his life. We see Val, alone in all, get surrendered by the police.
latterly, in the end, we see how Val’s future takes a turn, and now he's in recovery, meeting his gal Natasha and their child. In this demonstration of the pressure between life and death, Kevin symbolizes death, while Val is depicted as the eternal form of life. Val’s recovery from the woeful turn of his life is an instructional chapter of the movie that urges all suicidal victims to have a stopgap to live. Although generally, flicks about internal mindfulness are considered educational in the end, there may be some dissensions about this bone. For illustration, how Val’s maternity wake-up calls off his death diversion that leads to treason with Kevin. But pain entangles us so much that it becomes insolvable to get out of it. Likewise, in Val’s life, his maternity gives him hope to survive, but he becomes a victim of Kevin’s revenge. Although Kevin feels empathy for Val, he commits self-murder in his capacity for freedom. So, it’s dispensable to say, life eventually forced the two musketeers to make different opinions for their good, which gives Val an occasion and Kevin an end.
Final Words A Distinctive Approach
The film is Carmichael’s innovative take on the depiction of internal breakdown, packed with violent emotion and dark comedy. This movie may not make you laugh out loud, but it's bound to put an uncomfortable smile on your lips that will make you worry constantly about the protagonists ’ dire consequences. Kevin’s faint aspect and Val’s burning silence keep you allowed throughout the movie. Don’t anticipate any grand locales or eye-catching illustrations in it, as the movie primarily portrays the half-dead lives of two broken-inclined people. But within an hour and a half, the movie will change your perception of internal illness and make you choose between two consummations either finishing it off or beginning a commodity new.
“ On The Count of Three ” is a 2022 Drama Comedy Film directed by Jerrod Carmichael.