Sex! Now that I have your attention, I’d like to talk to you about sex. No truer words were spoken than, "You never truly know what goes on behind closed doors." Good times, bad times, kinky times. And it’s the fact that we don’t know that makes us curious, very curious - at least, that’s what actor turned writer-director Josh Lawson hopes for in his feature film debut ‘The Little Death’.
This sexual comedy sees five couples, each featuring a member with a fetish. Whether the other partner knows or not depends on each story, but we follow these relationships down that rabbit hole as we see how each fetish combined with truth and a splash of deception affects the fate of their union.
SWITCH: 'THE LITTLE DEATH' JOSH LAWSON INTERVIEW
Staying well and truly clear of Christian Grey-itis, the beauty of ‘The Little Death’ is that the couples of choice are so ordinary. All middle class, suburban people of varying success professionally and personally - there's long-term, unmarried couple Paul and Maeve unveiling total honesty and wanting to add a little spice to their sex life. Dan and Evie who are told to explore the word of roleplaying, maybe a little too literally. Phil falls in love with his bitter and mean wife Maureen all over again, but only when she’s asleep. Rowena and Richard; struggling to conceive, Rowena discovers a sexual arousal in seeing her husband cry. And finally Monica and Sam; total strangers who find a connection during a late-night phone conversation that turns into an unlikely three-way.
This sexual comedy sees five couples, each featuring a member with a fetish.
Funny, heartbreaking, provocative, beautiful and gloriously embarrassing in all the right ways, this film hits all the right buttons. Lawson has shown great talent in the past as a comedic writer, but now he’s showing his heart, and his cards in long-form storytelling.
Genuinely sweet and possibly offensive in parts, leave your judgmental hats at the door and relish the ordinary and extraordinary married beautifully here; just try to deny that you see yourself somewhere on screen. Scattered with a few monocle-dropping, pearl-clutching moments, you can’t brush off the continued laughs, in the same way you can't deny that a new triple-threat talent has emerged from the vast Australian pool.