Death Wish

 Two more from our Hulu run:

ON THE COUNT OF THREE (B+) - Standup comedian Jerrod Carmichael impresses as director and star of this story of a couple of emotionally wounded pals who set out on a one-day adventure that is supposed to end with their mutual suicides. As usual, that journey is much more important than the destination at the end of the film.

Carmichael, as Val teams up with Christopher Abbott (HBO's "Girls"), as Kevin, who starts out the film locked up in a mental institution. If Kevin is amped and manic, Val is dead-eyed, having just quit his dead-end job in order to spring Kevin and find a place to end it all. Of course, they get distracted along the way, and each man expresses some level of apprehension about carrying out the plan. Carmichael and Abbott drill deep into their characters, and the relationship between the men thrums with emotion, even if they don't express it much, besides bickering over which music to play in the car. Carmichael, in particular, is deft with something as simple as a withering glance.

Freed from having to worry about a future, they get reckless. Kevin points a gun at a rude mini-mart clerk, and the pair track down the psychologist who fucked up Kevin as a child (Henry Winkler pops in as the arrogant therapist). Other cameos include Tiffany Haddish as Val's fed-up impending baby-mama and J.B. Smoove as Val's deadbeat dad.

Carmichael, working with a smart script by newcomers Ari Katcher ("The Carmichael Show") and Ryan Welch, works efficiently, clocking the production in at 85 taut minutes. They find a balance of grim comedy and heartache that sticks with a viewer.

THE KILLING OF TWO LOVERS (2021) (B+) - This ultra-indie examination of a couple's trial separation is less a slow burn than a slow build. It benefits from natural performances that feel expertly group-workshopped to create a gritty human drama.

Clayne Crawford transforms into desperate David, who is shown in the opening scene standing over his marital bed, pointing a gun at his estranged wife and her lover. You'd be wrong to think, though, that this is a trashy revenge thriller. Instead, it is a nuanced and raw deconstruction of David's separation from Niki (Sepideh Moafi) and its impact on their three young boys and teenage daughter, Jess (Avery Pizzuto), who jousts with her father for failing to "fight for us." 

David is tightly wound, and with good reason. Some jerk is sleeping with his wife and hanging out with his kids, and David isn't sure why this marriage isn't working. He also is living with his father now and spending a lot of time stewing in his pickup truck, driving around rural Utah. Crawford's performance is subtle; you cringe a bit as David tries a little too hard to have fun with his kids during his prescripted time with them. He gets an earful from Niki the day after sneaking over to the house in the middle of the night and swapping Mitch Hedberg jokes with the kids. (For the extra touch of realism, actual Hedberg jokes are used.)

The conversations we see between David and Niki are as awkward as you'd expect from a wife and husband in limbo, and a showdown between David and her lover is drenched in sarcasm and dread. I can't believe the dialogue was scripted so finely; there had to be a good number of rehearsals and some well-earned ad-libbing allowed by the actors.

Journeyman Robert Machoian, working within a compact 85 minutes, has crafted a simmering character study, with a fine-tuned narrative that never diverts along a familiar path. He uses no soundtrack but focuses instead on ambient sounds, as if making a documentary. 

David and Niki are three-dimensional characters, and anyone who has gone through a breakup after a long-term relationship should feel this in the pit of their gut. Machoian nails that sudden welling of irrational emotion that can make us do stupid things, and the suspense crescendoes naturally. Hopefully there won't be deadly weapons lying around when that feeling overtakes us. In the end (the banal coda can be chilling, in retrospect), it's worth considering the alternate meanings possible for the movie's title.