OPINION: Good Grief Suicide Hotline

It’s important that I begin with a strong recommendation that you don’t consider my thoughts on Good Grief Suicide Hotline, a pitch-black comedy that debuted at the Atlanta Film Festival earlier this week, an official review. There’s no chance of being unbiased on this one, considering I’ve known director/co-writer Sam Carter and executive producer Eddie Stone (Atlanta residents who grew up in Carrollton) for almost 25 years.

So I’m taking off my film critic hat this week (that’s why there’s no grade at the bottom of the page) and instead writing from the perspective of a proud acquaintance. Keep that in mind when I say the movie is an absolute blast: hilarious, uncompromising and dark – often astonishingly so. Many comedies will pretend to head for bleak territory, talking a big game but then pulling back before they cross the line. Not this one.

Carter and co-writer Evan Fowler plow straight through that line until they reach the story’s disturbing, yet inevitable conclusion. Then they throw in some jokes during the end credits so you can laugh while you’re recovering from whatever the heck it is you just watched. To say the movie’s not for everyone is a gigantic understatement, but those with a twisted sense of humor (like myself) won’t walk away disappointed.

Good Grief Suicide Hotline, shot in Atlanta and featuring a ton of local actors and comedians, tells the story of Mark Reynolds (Dane Davenport), an idealistic young man who sees a late-night ad for a local crisis counseling center and decides to volunteer. However, once he arrives at the sparse, sketchy office, Mark discovers the hotline isn’t designed to help people at all.

Instead, it’s a scam created by a shady businessman (George Faughnan) to fleece desperate people, staffed by an assortment of con artists and lowlifes working off their community service (played by Fowler, Theodore Abner, Casey Holloway, Ben Owen, Ronald Ogden and Tom Thon). Rather than heading straight for the exit – like a normal person – Mark decides he’s going to legitimize the operation from the inside.

It works about as well as you’d expect, as the do-gooder finds himself starting to act more like his co-workers instead of the other way around. His decency further erodes when he starts dating Lizzy (Hannah Fierman), one of his self-destructive callers. Eventually, Mark realizes he probably needs more help than his clients, but is it too late for him to change?

Making a movie is hard, especially when it’s shot guerilla-style with basically no money. And making a good movie under those circumstances is darn near impossible. That’s why the professional quality of Good Grief Suicide Hotline is going to stun a lot of people.

This isn’t a couple of buddies goofing off in front of a camera, pretending they know what they’re doing. Carter, along with his talented cast and crew, has been working on this project for years – and it shows. The 86-minute feature zooms along at a breakneck pace, aside from a brief lull between the second and third acts. Carter and Fowler overload their screenplay with a variety of jokes, ranging from sight gags to clever wordplay, from gross-out humor to biting satire. During the screening, I kept thinking how much it reminded me of Clerks, Kevin Smith’s breakout debut, in terms of tone, ribald sensibilities and do-it-yourself filmmaking.

Honestly, I should probably see the movie again before finalizing my thoughts on it. The audience’s laughter – and my own – made me miss some key moments of the characters’ conversations. In fact, I laughed so hard at one joke that I’m pretty sure the people around me thought I was having an asthma attack.

It helps that Carter has a keen eye for casting the right actors to deliver the razor-sharp dialogue. Davenport is a solid lead, believably conveying Mark’s altruistic nature, as well as his dark side, and Fowler comes close to stealing the movie as one of his scheming co-workers. But Holloway delivers my favorite performance, turning in nuanced, surprisingly touching work as the film’s moral center, a recovering addict who ends up as collateral damage in Mark’s self-obsessed journey.

Good Grief Suicide Hotline is currently seeking distribution, but it continues its festival run with a stop at the Marietta Film Festival on May 23. Fans of dark humor should make plans to attend. To get an idea of what you’re in for, check out the trailer (not safe for sensitive ears) at www.facebook.com/GoodGriefSH.

Good Grief Suicide Hotline is not yet rated, but contains strong language, sexuality and unsettling thematic elements.