16 year old Rocco's two aims in life are to get laid and to see his favourite pop star in concert with his best friends, sassy and tomboyish Maria and nerdy and quiet Mauri. When a bullying incident at school forces Rocco to come out to his divorced middle-class parents their liberal leanings are severely tested. Luckily his two friends stand by him and join him in running away from home (in his parents stolen car) to see their favourite singer in concert, followed hot on their heels by his neurotic mother and eccentric gran to hilarious effect. A vibrant , funny coming out tale,, A Little Lust is both immersive and totally life-affirming.
Facing a long winter of lockdown and combating a bad case of writer’s block, filmmaker Eric agrees to get a dog with his girlfriend Allie. A modern couple – vegan, ethical, millennial, neurotic – much research and negotiation leads to the arrival of Milly, a rescue from the Dominican Republic. This sets off a riotous chain of new challenges on how to best deal with this addition to the household. As Eric contends with a sinister dog-training programme, his introspection spills out onto his film work, with poor Allie and Milly taken along for the ride. The couple each pursue their own deepheld individual questions surrounding trust, purpose and roots, while wrestling with the idea of what it means to be a modern family. Milly, in the meantime, has a lot on her paws with these two!
Part rom-com, part rescue-dog story, part autofiction, part self-indictment, part family scrapbook, this debut feature was made with remarkable economy and displays a disquieting amount of (often hilarious) emotional authenticity. Filmmaker Ben Petrie and creative collaborator Grace Glowicki play the young couple and in doing so, capture nothing less than what it means to be human.