In a culture flooded with wellness gurus, meditation apps, and podcasts offering guidance on mental health, it’s only fitting that a movie could push the concept of therapy to one of the darkest and most absurd extremes. Entering a genuinely independent fray of cautionary tales is esteemed Turkish director Tolga Karacelik’s biting and noir-tinged satire, Psycho Therapy: The Shallow Tale of a Writer Who Decided to Write About a Serial Killer. If its full-length title induces anxiety, you’ll find it perfectly matches the film’s narrative.
Equally packed with existential dread, marital resentment, and disturbingly helpful life advice from a self-professed killer, Karacelik’s premise is downright unhinged but grounds its characters — led by Steve Buscemi, John Magaro, and Britt Lower — in the routines of creative failure and emotional disconnection. While it’s a black comedy that thrives on its warped ambitions, it doesn’t always land the kill. Like its struggling writer at the center of the film, Psycho Therapy has great ideas with flashes of brilliance thanks to its tone and cast, but it gets in its way more often than it should.
What Is ‘Psycho Therapy’ About?

With the burnout crisis festering in just about everything from our workloads to our relationships, the idea of a washed-up writer finding solace and inspiration from a retired serial killer doesn’t feel so far-stretched in the weirdness of our world today. Instead, it’s rather understandable when you meet Keane, played by Magaro. The beleaguered novelist has been working on a novel about homosapiens from 40,000 B.C. for four years and is oblivious to his dissolving marriage.
According to his polar opposite wife, Suzie (Lower), he’s also “not the sweetest thing to be around” as she is left unimpressed by both his literary ambitions and growing detachment from reality. Following a particularly ferocious fight that features a wildly funny deadpan breakup scene scored to Roberta Flack’s “Killing Me Softly” and a butcher knife in Suzie’s hand, Keane subsequently stumbles into a conversation with Kollmick (Buscemi), a charming but unnerving retired serial killer who offers himself as a muse.
Naturally, the absurdity of its Coen Brothers-stylized plot is also matched by its overall execution and turns itself into a comedy of errors as Kollmick is mistaken by Suzie as a real marriage counselor. He begins holding sessions with the couple to help balance their emotional breakthroughs with macabre metaphors, including one unforgettable, laugh-out-loud session involving a taxidermy cat named Ada. The scene finds Keane and Suzie genuinely engaged in the advice, but also confused.
As therapy becomes more of a habit with Kollmick weaving himself into their lives, he also takes Keane on “stakeouts” in an attempt to inspire his new book and break the writer’s block spell. But the moments slowly unravel both Keane’s grip on reality and the couple’s already fragile connection — think of it this way: Adaptation. meets Fargo, with a splash of Dexter, but a lot quirkier and less bloody.
‘Psycho Therapy’ Is Tonally Brilliant, but It’s Bumpier Than It Should Be

One of the fun parts about Psycho Therapy is its sharp blend of the Coen brothers’ styles with moody noir, Hitchcock vibes. But as it’s also littered with ironic detours, pacing issues begin to show, leaving you wondering about the placement and payoff of specific scenes. Some moments, like the incredibly Hitchcockian dinner between Suzie and Keane, hit their beats perfectly, while others feel like sketches stretched past their breaking point. Though Psycho Therapy has its funny moments, it’s overall quite dry, leading you to feel it’s a bit of a misstep in terms of its humor. At one point, it’s got a screwball feel with a laugh-out-loud vibe, but on the other hand, it’s dry to the point of evaporation, leaving you unsure of its comedic direction. Is it supposed to be a psychological thriller or an anti-rom-com fever dream?
While Psycho Therapy boasts a killer premise with an undeniable energy, the film doesn’t know what to do sometimes with its bounty of ideas across a brilliantly noir framework. Because of this chunkiness, you’ll start to notice how a few scenes just don’t connect as smoothly as they ought to. This clutter is felt when things quickly snowball into misunderstandings among its characters. Even the ending, which becomes a bit more ambiguous and surreal than necessary, feels like an escape hatch rather than something more satisfying.
There were times it felt the film could have worked as a short, but that would require a little more focus when things feel this scattered. Never fully committing to what it needs to be amid a screwball-esque comedy of errors or satirical commentary on marriage, Psycho Therapy leaves itself stranded between a sharp indie gem and an overwritten thesis.
‘Psycho Therapy’s Cast Does All the Heavy Lifting

Image via Brainstorm Media

Even with its narrative messiness, Psycho Therapy remains an enjoyable watchable thanks to its inventiveness and, of course, its core three cast members. Across its 102 minutes, the film’s saving grace is undoubtedly Buscemi, Magaro, and Lower, who each give everything they can to these characters. In the last few years, we’ve seen what an absorbing powerhouse Magaro can be as a character actor. From Past Lives to September 5, Magaro nails Keane with a similar magnetism, except this time with the anxious, slightly smug energy of a man so deep in his own world he doesn’t see his life falling apart around him. He plays him strikingly and almost like Ned Flanders trapped in a noir universe — earnest, pitiful, and weirdly endearing.
Meanwhile, Lower as Suzie balances dry comedy with a simmering rage that feels frighteningly real. One look at her mascara smudged, chopping onions while her husband drones on about his book, says more than any monologue could. But as someone who has created a strong impression with audiences thanks to a compelling role in Apple TV+’s masterpiece series, Severance, Psycho Therapy underwrites her. For someone who has such intense feelings about her husband and their marriage, we don’t get to understand her as much. While it creates a bit of an abrupt perception in terms of what we need to figure out about their past, Lower is still captivating to watch. She and Magaro share a yin and yang chemistry, perfectly capturing the tension between creative chaos and grounded pragmatism, creating mystery with the audience over how they might react to one another.

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Of course, one of our most beloved veteran actors, Buscemi serves as Psycho Therapy’s secret weapon. Kollmick feels like what would happen if Billy Madison’s Danny McGrath developed the discipline of Boardwalk Empire’s Nucky Thompson to be a grounded, yet mysterious enough to care about, serial killer. With a disarmingly calm voice and eyes that flicker between mentor and menace, he levels out the film’s surrealism and absurdity. His chemistry with both Magaro and Lower keeps the film afloat and makes for some incredibly dynamic scenes, especially in moments that flirt with becoming too weird. Helping steer the film’s narrative chaos while casually referencing past murders or earnestly offering marriage advice, Buscemi walks the tonal tightrope with surprising grace and charisma.
Psycho Therapy isn’t as smooth as it needs to be, even if the cast plays the characters like a glove. But it’s because of these performances and the film’s willingness to dive headfirst into discomfort that the genre-blending oddball is easy to admire, even if it’s hard to love. Sure, the execution is a bit wobbly at times and devolves into some chaos, but it’s some of these parts that make it an interesting watch. With deliciously specific tones and a commendable ambition, Psycho Therapy is a twisted black comedy, at least worth the introductory session.
Psycho Therapy: The Shallow Tale of a Writer Who Decided to Write About a Serial Killer is in theaters April 11.

Psycho Therapy: The Shallow Tale of a Writer Who Decided to Write about a Serial Killer

Psycho Therapy is sharp, strange satire that delivers some killer laughs and unsettling truths.

Release Date

April 4, 2025

Runtime

102 minutes

Director

Tolga Karaçelik

Writers

Tolga Karaçelik

Pros & Cons

Bold, darkly funny concept that blends noir with Coen-esque satire and offbeat charm.
Magaro and Lower bring raw chemistry and dry wit to their fractured marriage.
Buscemi’s mesmerizing performance grounds the absurdity with surprising depth.

Overstuffed narrative occasionally undercuts emotional payoff and momentum.
Uneven pacing dull some of the film’s sharper comedic edges.