THE LITTLE DEATH

Lisa McCune and Alan Duke on the set of the new Josh Lawson movie,  THE LITTLE DEATH
Lisa McCune and Alan Duke on the set of the new Josh Lawson movie, THE LITTLE DEATH

With his new film  THE LITTLE DEATH,  Josh Lawson has written and directed a very funny film. Various stories relating to the sex lives and fantasies of a group of friends and neighbours are hilariously examined.

The film opened at the Sydney Film Festival and the audience was laughing from the opening scene. It was difficult to hear all the dialogue during the phone sex scene (featuring Erin James and TJ Power) because of the waves of laughter resounding through the cinema.

THE LITTLE DEATH opens with a scene about rape fantasy; a topic that is fraught with danger and in the wrong hands could be destructive and traumatic. However, Josh Lawson handles the situation well with humour and sensibly avoids the potential hazards of this subject.

Other fantasies explored include:-  being aroused by someone crying and the tragic and comic depths someone will descend into to make their partner cry, being turned on by inherently funny role-play which happens to turn into an obsession, and being aroused by the sight of a sleeping partner. These fantasies make for some comical set pieces. Even though the film’s subject is about very intimate feelings and subjects, the characters tend to get themselves into complicated and ridiculous situations through their failure to have open and intimate conversations. This is incidental, really, as the film is lots of fun.

There are consistently strong performances from a talented cast that includes Josh Lawson, Bojana Novakovic, Damon Herriman, Patrick Brammall, Lisa McCune, Erin James, Kim Gyngell, TJ Power, Kate Box, Kate Mulvany, Alan Dukes, Genevieve Hegney, Zoe Carides, Ben Lawson, Tasneem Roc, Paul Gleeson, Lachy Hulme and Russell Dykstra.

THE LITTLE DEATH should be released later this year. I thoroughly recommend it.