Critic Reviews

Day's commanding performance as Jimmy is Kill Me's other greatest asset. For a good portion of the film, he taps into the comedic skills he's famous for, at times playing Jimmy like a more grounded take on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia's iconic Pepe Silvia scene. But when the film turns to Jimmy confronting his demons, Day really shines."

The film is well written enough to capture the pain of everyone involved and to understand their perspectives. The film also features great camerawork, with close-ups that make the entire experience feel claustrophobic, especially when people make Jimmy doubt himself.

There are times when the film can feel weighted down by its clever framework. Externalizing the steps of deeply internal emotional progress Jimmy and Margot make with one another’s help can occasionally seem like a separate pursuit from satisfying genre expectations when it really does appear there’s a killer on the loose. However, the approach proves fresh more often than not.

While Kill Me doesn’t stick its landing, this is an impressive debut from Peter Warren, and it shows how well he can mix extremely dark subject matter with an engaging mystery that’s also quite funny.

If its exploration of these ideas is ultimately too incomplete to feel fully satisfying, its performances are strong enough to draw attention throughout.