Psycho Therapy (don’t worry, I won’t use the full title) feels like a sitcom version of a Coen Brothers movie. It’s the kind of film that actually works better as a straight-to-streaming release—an absurd dark comedy filled with quirky characters and funny situations that keep things amusing throughout, even if the chuckles never quite build into full-on laughter.
It clearly aims for the unpredictability of Burn After Reading, Miller’s Crossing, and Fargo, with a touch of Scorsese’s The King of Comedy. And while it has the premise and the ideas to pull that off, the execution—led by Turkish director Tolga Karaçelik in his English-language debut—doesn’t quite get there. The setups are clever, even if not entirely original: a wife convinced her husband wants to kill her but unsure he has it in him; a nosy taxi driver obsessed with the people he’s following; couples’ therapy run by a serial killer; an incapable writer kidnapping his agent. All strong concepts that rarely go anywhere unexpected—as if Karaçelik puts too much faith in the premise and the characters to carry it. In today’s world of serialized storytelling, it almost plays like a decent pilot episode for Fargo, but one still waiting on nine more episodes to really go somewhere bold.
That said, the committed cast goes a long way. Steve Buscemi doesn’t have a lot of layers to work with, but he’s still the film’s standout as a deadpan, delusional former killer. John Magaro leans into his character’s emptiness, and Britt Lower dials the paranoia from her Severance performance up to a whole new level. They’re fun to watch—it’s just a shame the story doesn’t give them more to do. Characters often repeat their thoughts a few too many times (the killer’s repeated surprise that the writer knocked someone out, the wife’s constant insistence that her husband is trying to kill her), and the final act misses the chance to either go deeper or go completely off the rails.
Still, it keeps the awkward laughs and offbeat energy going. You probably won’t remember much about it the next day, but while it’s on, it’s entertaining enough to make you chuckle.