Psycho Therapy: The Shallow Tale of a Writer Who Decided to Write About a Serial Killer
When asked how long he's been working on his current book at a dinner party, Keane (John Magaro, "First Cow," "September 5") sputters, but his wife Suzie (Britt Lower, TV's 'Severance') responds 'it's been four years' in a dry monotone. She's cool on the way home, telling him a light has changed to green when it hasn't, later announcing she wants a divorce. This news will coincide with Keane meeting a fan of his first book, Kollmick (Steve Buscemi), at a diner after having received a lecture from his agent, David (Ward Horton, "Annabelle"), about the uncommercial prospects of his current work. Kollmick tells Keane he is a 'retired' serial killer and wishes to help him write something that will sell, but when Keane brings him home in the middle of the night, Suzie mistakes the stranger for a marriage counselor in "Psycho Therapy: The Shallow Tale of a Writer Who Decided to Write About a Serial Killer."
Laura's Review: B
Oddly, two films being released at the same time starring Britt Lower also have Slovenian themes - in "Darkest Miriam," she falls in love with a Slovenian cab driver, while writer/director Tolga Karaçelik ("Butterflies") begins his film with a visual representation of Keane's book, 'The Sorrow and the Steppes,' about a homo sapiens woman falling in love with a Neanderthal in Slovenia 30,000 years B.C. Now that I've gotten that bizarre coincidence out of the way, the two films couldn't be more different, Karaçelik's a blackly comedic twist on Hitchcockian marital suspense.
Suzie's shock divorce demand will be delivered after Keane finds her, mascara running down her face making her look like a Goth version of the French clown Pierrot, chopping onions with a threatening butcher knife (when asked what she's going to do with all those onions, Suzie replies 'I like the sound'). Years of built up frustration come tumbling out as she explains that the green light she told him about was really red, their near-death experience as a truck barreled through the intersection the result of him always relying on her to make every decision. Drowning his sorrows in a local bar, Keane is surprised to be approached again by Kollmick, who will both counsel Keane on serial killing, lending him multiple books about forensics, and faux counsel Keane and Suzie on their marriage using a stuffed cat with a doll's arm he calls Ada as a focusing device. Kollmick's conflicting agendas lead to comedic misinterpretations about just who is trying to kill who, an Albanian gun dealer (Lee R. Sellars, "Jules") holding a llama as collateral and a Chinatown hotel shootout, but the ends justify his inadvertent means.
While Magaro plays a lovable schlemiel throughout, a manchild with faltering delusions of grandeur, Lower morphs from robotic ice queen to engaged sleuth, spying on her husband through the streets of New York with an increasingly reluctant cabbie. Notably, she begins to defend her husband the more her driver becomes suspicious of his and Kollmick's highly questionable actions. Buscemi plays Kollmick as something of a straight man, exasperation rising when Keane fails to play into either of his counseling efforts. Karaçelik blends the three disparate lead performances into a satisfying mix that ensures each is a foil for the other two.
The production has the distinct look of an older, established New York City, production designer Lance Mitchell ("Farewell Amor") favoring muted reds and greens recalling those early traffic lights. Cinematographer Natalie Kingston ("The Wolf of Snow Hollow") gives the film a neo-noir look, her nighttime lensing stylish. Original music by Nathan Klein features drums and flutes, creating a 'White Lotus' style jungle atmosphere. Costume designer Stacy Jansen ("Jules") attires the men in cardigans while creating a sleeker, more modern look for Lower, clad in satiny pajamas and flowy robes through most of the film.
Brainstorm Media releases "Psycho Therapy" in NYC on 4/2, expanding and going to VOD on 4/11. Click here for theater listings.
