Film

The Little Death

Name: The Little Death
Genre: Drama, Comedy, Romance
Released: 2014
Cast: Josh Lawson, Bojana Novaković, Damon Herriman, Kate Mulvany, Kate Box

Comedy

An Australian anthology comedy that strings together five couples, each hiding an unusual sexual quirk – somnophilia, roleplay, a taste for tears – inside otherwise ordinary suburban relationships. It's gentler than its premise suggests: more wistful and embarrassed than shocking, more interested in intimacy's awkward edges than titillation. Good for anyone who likes their comedy a little squirmy and their romance a little strange.

TMDb rating

3.4

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy ensemble comedies about awkward intimacy, where the jokes come from embarrassment and loneliness rather than farce, and you don't mind the characters being a bit unlikable.

Skip it if you want a tidy plot or a sustained tone, since it drifts between vignettes and its frankness about sex can feel more clinical than erotic.

What it asks of you: It runs about 96 minutes, moving through several interlocking stories at a loose, conversational pace and asking you to track who connects to whom.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Happiness1998

Todd Solondz's interlocking suburban stories go far darker with taboo desire than The Little Death dares, but it's the obvious ancestor: ordinary people, extraordinary secrets, pitch-black comic timing.

But It's genuinely disturbing in places — this is comedy with teeth, not a cosy watch.

The Overnight2015

Two couples, one dinner party, an escalating spiral of sexual awkwardness and oversharing. Same squirmy, funny discomfort as The Little Death, compressed into a single agonising evening.

But Very talky and confined to one location — if you want scope or variety, this feels claustrophobic.

Love Actually2003

The mainstream template for weaving several couples' storylines into one mosaic of a city and a season. Warmer and safer than The Little Death, but the structural pleasure is identical.

But Sanded down and sentimental where the film you just watched stays odd and unresolved.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Little Death

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

La Ronde1950

This is the interlocking-couples-and-secret-desire structure decades before The Little Death, done with old-world elegance instead of Australian suburban embarrassment — same carousel, different costume.

Max Ophüls' elegant carousel of lovers passing desire from one to the next, each vignette a small, rueful comedy of manners about what people want and can't quite ask for.

But Stately, theatrical, and from a very different cinematic vocabulary — patience required if you want modern pacing.

Choke2008

Sam Rockwell as a sex-addicted con man in a Chuck Palahniuk adaptation that treats compulsive desire as both punchline and genuine pathos, much like the film's ensemble does.

But Rockwell's character is far more selfish and abrasive — less warmth, more provocation.

Afternoon Delight2013

A bored suburban marriage cracks open once a stripper moves in — sharp, uncomfortable, funny about what people actually want versus what they're supposed to want.

But Kathryn Hahn's character is prickly and self-sabotaging; not everyone will warm to her.

American Beauty1999

The granddaddy of suburban-desire-as-dark-comedy, with the same interest in what respectable adults hide behind closed doors, told with more visual flourish and menace.

But Its reputation has dimmed with time, and some of its gaze feels dated now.

Sleeping with Other People2015

Two sex addicts become platonic friends and slowly, painfully, don't stay that way. Funnier and more romantic than it sounds, with real heat under the jokes.

But It's a rom-com at heart — less interested in the strangeness of desire than in a will-they-won't-they.

Enough Said2013

Adult, unglamorous romance between two people who've been hurt before, funny about the small humiliations of dating and vulnerability past forty.

But Much quieter and more conventional — no ensemble, no kink, just one relationship rendered honestly.

This Is 402012

Judd Apatow's warts-and-all portrait of a long marriage grinding through boredom, resentment and desire, with the same instinct that comedy and intimacy are inseparable.

But Baggy and overlong; the laughs come in a much more conventional, dialogue-heavy package.

Crash1996

Same premise, inverted register: instead of laughing gently at strange desire, Cronenberg stares at it unblinking and asks you to feel unsettled rather than amused.

Cronenberg's cold, clinical film about people who find car crashes erotic takes the exact engine of The Little Death — ordinary bodies, extraordinary private fixations — and runs it through body horror instead of comedy.

But Deliberately alienating and clinical rather than funny or warm; some find it numbing rather than provocative.