Short of the Day: ‘3-Way (Not Calling)’ Attempts Sexual Escapades with Hilarious Results

A raunchy, raucous comedy.

A raunchy, raucous comedy.

People do a lot of desperate stuff before big birthdays; it’s like a simple shift of numbers somehow signifies the death of something – youth, impulsiveness, freedom – and so in order to counter this, last hurrahs are undertaken, usually with less than desirable consequences.

Take today’s short film selection, 3-Way (Not Calling) from writer-director Molly McGlynn: a woman on the verge of her 30th birthday, Mel (Emma Hunter), is feeling like the rambunctious days of her youth are drawing to a close, and this, teamed with the somewhat-stale relationship with her partner Kevin (Kristian Brunn, “Donnie” from Orphan Black), convinces her that what she needs is a good, old-fashioned threesome to liven things up. Reluctantly Kevin agrees, but when an online search proves fruitless, they turn to their local barista (Emily Coutts) and end up in an entanglement more awkward than sexy.

There are lots of stories about couples-gone-wrong out there, especially couples trying to fix whatever’s gone wrong with out-of-character sexual escapades, but McGlynn’s take on the subject manages to feel fresh and familiar, not in the sense that we’ve seen this before, but in the sense that we’ve felt something like it: restless in life, in love, yearning for something more than TV dates and couch-lounging. Bruun and Hunter have a casual, comfortable chemistry, which when upended results in a delightfully-deadpan and compromising situation.

3-Way (Not Calling) premiered over at Short of the Week, and a word of warning, the film is rated M for Mature owing to some frank sexual dialogue and situations, and even a little bit of nudity. So enjoy, but not at work or with minors around.

H. Perry Horton: Novelist, Screenwriter, Video Essayist