Rubber Heart
2018 · 10m · USA
Directed by Lizzy Sanford
Genres: comedy, drama, romance
Tones: darkly comic, humorous, tender
After a long sexual drought, a woman lines up a hookup that almost immediately falls apart because the guy can't handle her body hair. A small, sharp comedy about how casual sex is never casual.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Hookup comedy that takes the post-coital silence as seriously as the build-up — that's where the actual drama lives and most directors flinch. Sanford and Cordell don't, and the result is the rare sex scene worth keeping.
Pubic-hair micro-confrontation framed as character autopsy rather than joke is the harder, more honest move — Joanna Arnow with the dial tilted toward warmth is a precise tonal claim. Trust the reframe.
Framing a pubic-hair micro-confrontation as character autopsy rather than punchline is the precise register that separates this from a sketch. Page is blocked, but the Joanna-Arnow-with-warmth pitch reads as a real lane.
Reviews
Sanford is able to accurately capture the awkwardness and vulnerability — the coital fumbling and post sex practicalities are handled perfectly, and the whole thing is carried with wonderfully candid performances.