107 min | R | March 28, 2025 | A24
Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega accidentally kill a unicorn and corporate greed ensues. A24 tries to make a satire about pharmaceutical exploitation. The tone never settles.
Dark comedies about corporate evil live or die on whether they commit to the premise. Death of a Unicorn sets up a scenario where a father and daughter hit a unicorn with their car on the way to meet his billionaire boss. They discover the creature’s blood has miraculous healing properties. The boss wants to monetize it. The premise has potential. The execution is confused.
Paul Rudd plays Elliot with his usual affable desperation. He’s good at playing men in over their heads. Jenna Ortega plays his daughter Ridley with the same deadpan energy she brings to everything. The two of them have chemistry but the script gives them nothing to build on. Richard E. Grant plays the billionaire with theatrical menace that belongs in a different, broader film. Will Poulter shows up and does strong work in limited screen time. The tonal inconsistency makes it impossible for any of them to find a consistent character.
Alex Scharfman directs his first feature and struggles with basic storytelling mechanics. The film can’t decide if it wants to be horror, comedy, or satirical fable. Scenes shift tone without transition. The unicorn itself is rendered with effects that are adequate but uninspired. The violence is sporadic and unclear in purpose. The satire aims at pharmaceutical companies and capitalist exploitation but never sharpens into anything pointed or specific.
The film has ideas about corporate greed and environmental destruction and family dysfunction. It just never figures out how to dramatize any of them coherently. The ending arrives without resolution or purpose. This needed more drafts and a clearer vision of what it wanted to be.