If you’re feeling charitable, perhaps you might think Suicide for Beginners merely starts on the wrong note. It begins with its antihero deadpanning a monologue about the virtues of dying by suicide, all while he purchases potentially deadly tools from a hardware store. Director and co-writer Craig Thieman knows this is in bad taste, and he lets us know he knows with goofy-sounding music that you might find in a family film about a misbehaving pet. None of this is particularly funny or subversive, in particular because better films and shows have explored similar territory, and so the cumulative effect is grating. Unfortunately, Thieman never deviates from this misguided attempt at black comedy, and the film lasts another 90 minutes.
Our antihero is Garrett (Wil Daniels), an incel type with glasses and greasy hair who is obsessed with Mia (Sara Tomko). He wants Mia to like him as more than friends, so he kidnaps her and ties her up in his garage. This kind of horrible plan has no semblance to actual human behavior, which means Thieman attempts to smooth it over with broadly comic style. While Suicide for Beginners is frequently violent, none of the performances suggest any realism to match the situation. In fact, when pizza deliveryman (Nate Panning) and his girlfriend (Julia Lehman) also become Garrett’s hostages, they behave more like sitcom characters than anything else. The main story involves Garrett’s plan growing out of his control, to the point where has no alternative but to partake in a massive murder spree.
As this film circles the drain to its predictable conclusion, it’s difficult to imagine its intended audience. Aside from the occasional one-liner, no character or performance is especially memorable, and Thieman never solves the problem of Garrett’s motivation. He is not a monster who has some dark impulse he cannot control, so he indulges in bad behavior only because that’s what the screenplay requires of him. The attempts at physical comedy are even more unconvincing: there is one scene where Mia manages to escape Garrett’s house while he talks to strangers on his front lawn, and the joke is how no one notices her. The suspension of disbelief in this sequence and countless others is too high; instead of laughing, we register we are seeing an attempt at comedy that fails. Another curiosity involves stunt casting: Corey Feldman and Sid Haig have supporting roles, and longtime fans of either may enjoy watching them chew the scenery. Then again, Haig’s appearance is bittersweet: this is his final film role, and Suicide for Beginners is an ignoble end to a memorable career.
Maybe the material could have been transgressive and a minor cult hit if it were released 30 years ago, or leaned into shocking violence. You may recall Haig appeared in The Devil’s Rejects, a horror comedy that did more than merely embrace bad taste; it smeared itself in bad taste, wallowing in depravity while finding unusual cinematic courage along the way. Thieman is nowhere near the director Rob Zombie can sometimes be. Suicide for Beginners is competently staged and shot – there are no mistakes that you might find in an Ed Wood movie. Its faults are found elsewhere: an inept attempt at provocation and scenes that repeat themselves, all during a massive tonal misfire. Like Mia and the film’s other hapless characters, to watch this film is to feel taken hostage.
Photo courtesy of Vertical Entertainment
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