Aaaaah! The awkward sexual encounter, we’ve all had one (right?) and there’s no denying it makes for a great story. For teenagers Natalie and Ryan, this fumbled night of passion just happens to be their first time and things don’t exactly go as plan. Adam Tyler’s surprisingly complex comedy Screwball! gives us a bedside seat into our young lover’s first attempts to pop their cherries as what should have been a night of uncontrollable desire turns into a way more revealing night of sharing and never-ending pussy (you’ll see!).

Screwball! isn’t just a film about awkward sex though, in fact (sorry to disappoint) no actual sex takes place in the short and the only thing blown here is the minds of our young lovers when they engage in an open and frank discussion about the pressures and expectations that this “life-changing” act brings with it. As the story evolves, what begins a comedy cleverly transforms into something else as our young couple reveal more and more about the internal struggles they face because of (mis)information they’ve got from friends or the internet.

Coming from a generation where your best chance of seeing a naked woman as a young teenager came from finding a bag of porn (yep, it used to come in magazine form) in the woods or making friends with that kid at school whose dad had a secret VHS collection, it’s hard to imagine what sexual expectations must be like for a generation who basically have unlimited porn of tap. Tyler’s film not only refers to this growing issue in adolescent assumptions, but addresses it head-on with it’s central couple actually listing a lot of the real-life worries teenagers will have because of this exposure.

And this is where Screwball! really raises its game and lifts itself above just being another comedy about sex. What Tyler has done by taking his story in this direction, is create an accessible, insightful and entertaining film that should hopefully stimulate discussion and break down a few barriers. At the very least Screwball! will hopefully have a few of you shouting the anatomical names for sex organs after watching…all together now “VUUUUULLLLLLLLVAAAAAAA”.

For more tales revolving around losing your virginity why not check out Nicole Delaney’s Yoyo, Zane Rubin’s The Last Virgin in LA or Hilary Bell’s Gogurt and hop over to our Sexuality channel for stories about delaying that climatic moment, cross-dressing and the Clitoris.