Afternoon Delight

The setup screams juvenile comedy—lonely guy, dirty movie, predictable punchline—but Mosterts pulls the rug out and goes *tender*, which is either brilliant subversion or saccharine depending on your tolerance for tonal whiplash; I'm still deciding.

A modest chamber piece that understands the lineage of romantic comedy's emotional reversals, executing its tonal pivot with the kind of restraint that feels increasingly rare—there's a formalist intelligence to how it withholds the expected and delivers the intimate.

The entire film hinges on a single reframing—what that DVD actually contains—and Mosterts commits so completely to the emotional truth of that reveal that a 9-minute premise becomes genuinely moving without ever winking at its own cleverness.

The 9 min short is centered around a porn parody, which ticks all the boxes on the 'most stereotypical porn' list, without actually featuring any nudity, and with an extra layer of sweetness added in, just to put out any lingering sexual thoughts.

After a promising start the film takes a rather unexpected plot turn, which opens up a whole new, softer side of Bobby. Afternoon Delight recycles all our favourite 'bad porn' lines and scenarios, and does so to the smooth lounge jazz soundtrack you'd expect, ensuring plenty of laughs along the way.

The overblown sexual tension between the porn actors, transforming into sympathy and affection, creates surprisingly endearing moments, resulting in the biggest laughs. I can't remember ever rooting for someone to successfully manage to masturbate before, but there's a first time for everything!