Jason Sondhi
In today’s film, writer-director Chrissie De Guzman shows how inclusion can revitalize moribund genres. Examining a three-way romantic relationship or “throuple”, the young Filipina filmmaker breathes fresh life into the romantic film genre by taking what could have been a mere titillating concept for normies and weaving it into something unexpectedly thoughtful, sexy, and sweet. The result both honors the specificity of the subject, yet fits perfectly within the conventions and fantasy gloss of its genre, guiding viewers along a journey that is familiar, yet fresh.
Bubbles (Aisha Jade) shows up hungover for a housecall. A stripper by trade, she is brought in by a progressive husband as a birthday gift for his wife. From their respectful demeanor and Bubble’s initial befuddlement when they ask about her “rules”, we get the sense that the couple is more experienced than our young sex worker—especially when she pukes into their decorative bowl of rice once blessed by the Dalai Lama…
Instead of being thrown out, Bubbles is babied and cared for, and an embarrassing situation transforms into a charming meet-cute. A previously transactional encounter becomes something more akin to a date, and the young woman, who had never previously considered a polyamorous relationship, is officially intrigued.
“We need to see more non-traditional love stories.”
The film engages in a degree of education about its premise—is the wife bisexual? is the husband? what about jealousy? While the concept is not new to me, as a hetero normative cis-male my primary exposure to throuples is via advice columns and Reddit, so I suppose that, to a degree, this exposition is necessary. However these basics of the polyamorous lifestyle are handled deftly in the script, and the viewer is otherwise guided along by the tried-and-true structure of the narrative.
If you examine Throuple’s plot, it is basically a reworking of Pretty Woman, including montage scenes of Bubble’s glamorous inculcation into the lifestyle, a friend/confidant character that speaks street-wise skepticism into the stripper’s ear, and a fundamental insecurity that underlies the euphoric rush of the fairy-tale romance. While the daunting hurdle of that 1990 blockbuster hit was class (can a rich man really fall for sex-worker?) in Throuple class is moved to the periphery—present, but sidelined by the larger existential question in Bubble’s mind of whether she can ever be a true partner in the relationship. Is she destined to relegation as a plaything, a sexy third wheel to the married couple’s core bond?
De Guzman, who identifies as LGBTQ, is clearly presenting the poly lifestyle to outsiders in a respectful way, however if there is one potential hiccup for the film it is its nature as fantasy—there is something vaguely discomfiting about the exoticism of the core premise: the faint impression of a leering sensibility towards the sex lives of these impossibly sexy participants, the power imbalance of the rich couple versus Bubbles as a person of color, and, from a poly perspective, the fact that even this “normalizing” of the lifestyle is so glamorous; replete with fancy sex parties and faraway vacations. Yet fantasy is intrinsic to the genre, and while providing a heightened version of reality, the film is grounded by De Guzman’s humanist script, and the close and tight cinematography that puts its actors’ performances front and center. Aisha Jade, who is a well-known model and influencer in Australia and New Zealand but who possesses limited credits as an actress, is absolutely magnetic—a potentially star-making performance that is critical for the film.
De Guzman’s thesis film from USC, Throuple had a long festival run with notable stops at Palm Springs, and top queer fests such as Outfest and Newfest. During that run, De Guzman took part in Viacom’s prestigious Viewfinder directing program and is currently working on developing Throuple as an episodic series, while also developing her first feature. We’re happy to host the film’s online premiere today!