The Little Death

An Australian comedy. The narrative follows several couples living on one street, each with a desire of their own. One woman likes role play and asks her husband for it; he agrees and cannot tell where it is going. In one couple the woman only wants her partner when he is crying, and rather than tell him she starts inventing bad news for him. Another wants to be approached while asleep. One man likes talking on the phone; the line he connects with is a relay service for the deaf and the conversation runs through a third person. That section is the best thing in the film. Behind all the stories is a man going door to door; a sex offender has moved into the neighbourhood and he is required to notify people, and nobody opens the door. What the narrative is interested in is not sex but not being able to say it: in every section someone chooses a roundabout way instead of saying what they want, and the harm comes from there. The tone moves between comedy and unease; some sections arrive somewhere plainly disturbing and the film does not soften it. Josh Lawson wrote, directed and acts in it; it is his first feature. Bojana Novaković, Damon Herriman, Kate Box and Erin James are in the cast. Who it is for: anyone who likes black humour and comedy of embarrassment. Who it is not for: a great many people; one of the sections makes comic material of a plain violation of consent and the film puts no distance between itself and that.