Sightlines · reception

How On the Count of Three was received

2022 · Jerrod Carmichael · On the Count of Three on Sightlines

The arc

Premiered to strong reviews at Sundance 2021, then sat on a shelf for over a year before a blink-and-you-missed-it May 2022 release — since then it's been steadily reclaimed as a hidden gem, especially by people working backwards through Carmichael's filmography after Rothaniel made him the most talked-about comedian in America.

What’s debated

The perennial fight is over tone: whether a buddy comedy built on a suicide pact is a high-wire act of empathy or too glib for its subject — with a side debate over how criminally underseen it is.

Its footprint

Its most-quoted moment is the Papa Roach bit — Christopher Abbott's character's dead-earnest devotion to 'Last Resort' versus Carmichael's disbelief at the lyrics — which turned the nu-metal anthem into the film's unofficial theme song in reviews and Letterboxd one-liners.

Where it stands

A 'why did nobody see this' Letterboxd favorite — a canon climber whose stock rises with Carmichael's profile as an auteur.

Did you know? Carmichael's directorial debut won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at Sundance 2021 (for writers Ari Katcher and Ryan Welch) — and then waited more than a year to reach theaters.