Three’s Company (2022) Short Film Review
Warning: Three’s Company contains graphic sex scenes. Viewer discretion is advised.
It’s weird how even though we are chronologically more advanced as a society, sex is still a taboo in any of its forms. I’m not looking to get into a discussion about gender. The act of sexual intercourse is considered a mystical performance that’s unique, as it is “forbidden” in the very acceptance of its existence. We all came from that. It’s time it isn’t considered a sin even if a baby doesn’t come out of every session.
Steve Balderson has made a short film that addresses that state of mind in a very broad and risky way. Its name is Three’s Company and running at little more than twenty minutes, it becomes the materialization of an idea that runs in every mind but hasn’t been depicted in such an intimate and transparent way. In it, two people have sexual intercourse and get rid of any shame that may show up when the lens focuses on them.
And then, we get involved.
Balderson breaks the fourth wall in the most direct manner. Both of the performers describe what they feel like, but they also interpret what they feel. It’s an organic breakdown of an act that’s neither dirty or shameful. It’s a natural course for two attractive people who feel attracted to each other. We, as viewers, participate in their encounter through an invasive communication that’s the main subject of Balderson’s agenda. He doesn’t want to make us see. He wants us to feel in touch with a moment where two human beings have opened up completely. And there’s no way to do that but seeing. Directly into the eyes of sexual pleasure.
Three’s Company is an experiment that reveals what many of the viewers can’t even cope with. A physical reaction to pleasure and the ability to inform what it actually feels like. It doesn’t even matter if it’s two men. It doesn’t have to do with genders. Sex is universal, and pleasure trespasses the boundaries of our species. What forces us to stay in this plane is guilt. The consideration of sin during what Balderson films pristinely.
In this very illuminated room, where two men have found each other through the elevation of each other by physical consideration, there isn’t sin. It’s not dirty. It’s everybody. It’s you.
Then again, be aware. This isn’t made for every viewer, and it isn’t a secret what I’m talking about.
