Céline Roustan
It begins and ends on a basketball court! She sees him, she wants him, but how will she get his attention when he doesn’t even seem to notice her? Thirsty is not your average one-sided love story. She is a mosquito (voiced by Maya Rudolph) with, we all have to admit, great taste in men (since the object of her desire is portrayed by Jay Ellis) and he is out of her gene pool, let alone her league. Writer/director Nicole Delaney embraces us in her surprisingly enthralling love story, subverting expectations by revisiting the rom-com tropes with a fresh perspective and sharp sense of humour.
“My goal from the beginning was a desire to tell a unique, unusual love story”
Delaney is no stranger to dark comedies, having worked on shows like Big Mouth and Search Party, but for this project, she had very specific intentions right from the start. “My goal from the beginning was a desire to tell a unique, unusual love story. One that played in an arena I’m all too familiar with: unrequited love”, she reveals in conversation with S/W.
While bouncing around ideas with co-writer Sonya Goddy, the initial idea of having a mosquito turning into a woman evolved into Thirsty – a story she qualifies as a “take on a Little Mermaid, vampire romantic comedy”. If you’re yet to see the film that comparison might sound confusing, but for those of us who have watched it, this feels like a most accurate description of the plot.
Through this cool and original take on the genre, Delaney and Goddy deliver a funny and refreshing screenplay with an extremely sharp and witty sense of humour. Reversing the usual gender roles we see in romcoms, in Thirsty it is the male character that is in a vulnerable place and going through a heartbreak. While the female character is almost blindly driven by her feelings, relentlessly chasing the object of her desire.
Real mosquitos were shot with the help of Steven Kutcher (Jurassic Park & Arachnophobia), a professional insect handler.
Since we hear the mosquito’s inner monologue throughout, this access to unfiltered thoughts proves very convenient for comedic purposes and Delaney and Goddy seize the opportunity to infuse the voiceover with smart and subtle jokes. Everything the mosquito says about the man is pitch-perfect, in both the tone and the intent, and I love that line about the reflection of the light on his skin. Granted, giving an insect human consciousness instantly makes the film fun, but they elevate this absurd concept by layering the two characters with surprising depth, making them both endearing and resulting in an unexpected emotional engagement with the story.
Delaney also immerses us in her love story by regularly making us experience the film through the mosquito’s perspective and using camera and sound to capture her state of mind. Unlike in real-life, the buzzing of the mosquito never gets too much and becomes irritating, instead, it works to put us in the right headspace without distracting us from her thoughts. As we feel like we are flying with her, the camera movements echo her excitement, disappointment and sadness and as Delaney pairs this experience with scenes where the man shows his vulnerabilities, how could you not root for them?
Jay Ellis as the love interest in Nicole Delaney’s Thirsty.
Playing a wounded man trying to get over a betrayal, Jay Ellis is as charming as ever. His subtle head gestures and reactions play a vital role in bridging the real world, with the more surreal one where the story lives. And of course, who better to voice the character of the mosquito than an Emmy Award winner for Outstanding voice-over performance? Maya Rudolph adds her own unique spin to the words of Delaney and Goddy, hitting all the right beats to enhance the comedic aspect of the screenplay while also immersing us in her character’s moving journey. The performances of Ellis and Rudolph help inject Thirsty with an unpredictable layer of authenticity and in the short’s climax we’re left with the perfect emotional yet comedic release…before…well you know what happens!
Thirsty was one of our favorite films from the 2019 Short Cuts program of TIFF, where it had its world premiere. Initially made for FX’s series Cake, its festival career included stops at Aspen and Palm Springs, before being released online and unsurprisingly getting a Vimeo Staff Pick badge. After having featured her previous short Yoyo, we are excited to welcome back Delaney to S/W, she is currently writing a project for Amazon called Nobody’s Princess.