SXSW Film Festival 2023: FUCK ME, RICHARD, SCOTTY’S VAG & I PROBABLY SHOULDN’T BE TELLING YOU THIS

Three films directed by young women that had their world premieres at this year’s South by Southwest Festival in the Narrative Shorts category examine female, Gen Z/millennial characters struggling to be seen and understood, whose respective quests for love and acceptance compel them to do dark and forbidden things. Lucy McKendrick and Charlie Polinger’s Fuck Me, Richard charts an isolated woman’s disembodied relationship with a scammer; Emma Weinswig’s I Probably Shouldn’t Be Telling You This sees lonely, extremely online podcasters Minna and Frank come together for an explosive discussion; and Chaconne Martin-Berkowicz’s Scotty’s Vag follows college freshman Scotty as she strives to impress her enigmatic sorority “big sister”.

Fuck Me, Richard (Lucy McKendrick and Charlie Polinger)

We meet Sally, the protagonist of Fuck Me, Richard, at her most vulnerable. To use the parlance of our times, she’s gone full “goblin mode”: slobbed out on the couch with a cast on her leg, surrounded by take-out containers and prescription pill bottles, crying as Trevor Howard confesses his love to Celia Johnson in the old Hollywood film Brief Encounter. Sally is in dire straits when she swipes across “Richard, 33”, the perfect, handsome and shaggy-haired vessel to hold all her fantasies of a knight in shining armor.

For a while, Richard appears happy to play that role. His disembodied voice listens to Sally’s confessions, laughs and makes soothing noises at all the right moments, and breaks up her monotonous days with steamy phone sex. Like a modern-day Edie Beale, Sally paces around her apartment in a sequined, feathery frock, fibbing to Richard about all the friends who check in on her while opening the door to another Uber Eats delivery. Things really go south when Richard stalls on an in-person meeting and starts harping on about his sick mother and her copious hospital bills. Just as we begin to write Sally off as a textbook tragic and lonely woman, all too willing to be deceived, it becomes clear that she might be the one playing chess not checkers.

Fuck Me, Richard is a stylish film that explores the thrills and perils of modern dating and the layers of mutual deceit and self-mythologizing that often accompany burgeoning romance. The increasingly claustrophobic four walls of the apartment provide an ideal setting for desperation and disassociation to take hold. Audiences will be left pondering Sally’s murky intentions long past the film’s 15-minute run time.

Follow the film’s journey here and on writer, director, and lead actor Lucy McKendrick’s IG.

SCOTTY’S VAG (CHACONNE MARTIN-BERKOWICZ)

Scotty’s Vag examines the brutal and bizarre bonding rituals of sorority girls. The film’s namesake is a sheltered freshman whose closest encounter with a boy to date was dancing at her stately cotillion ball, who is suddenly thrust into the hedonistic world of Greek life. Luckily, Scotty’s sorority “big sister” Hunter is a woman of the world, with the Princess Albertina – aka pierced vag – to prove it. Under her tutelage, Scotty partakes in jello wrestling, simulated “penalty orgasms”, and chants of “We are D-I, dark raiders of the night, we’re dirty, rotten bitches, we’d rather f*ck than fight!”.

The film spans one pivotal, alcohol-fueled night in Scotty and Hunter’s relationship. While “DI girls” make much of their promiscuity, it’s clear that boy craziness is just a foil for the mutual obsession between the girls that is at the heart of Scotty’s Vag. The film’s lone male is merely a prop through which Scotty proves her eagerness to carry out Hunter’s demands. Sexual escapades are ultimately not high stakes enough for Scotty, who decides to do something truly shocking to show Hunter that she too is a “total badass”.

Scotty’s Vag is a captivating portrait of the often obsessive nature of female friendship and the deranged, electric energy of adolescence. The garish, desperately sexual aesthetic of American youth culture familiar from films such as Bodies, Bodies, Bodies, Thirteen and Springbreakers is perfectly encapsulated in the girls’ wardrobes of shiny American Apparel-esque bikinis, short shorts, and novelty penis bobble headbands. The film delivers the equally excruciating and exhilarating feeling of yearning for “adulthood” while remaining shackled by girlhood self-consciousness and confusion.

Follow the film’s journey on writer and director Chaconne Martin-Berkowicz’s IG.

I PROBABLY SHOULDN’T BE TELLING YOU THIS (EMMA WEINSWIG)

I Probably Shouldn’t Be Telling You This follows trad Catholic “e-girl next door” Minna and incel-adjacent podcast host Frank as they fumble their way through an interview for Frank’s pod. Minna is a self-proclaimed compulsive liar who attends online confession and dresses like a slutty schoolgirl but claims to be saving herself for marriage. Frank loves how “open, honest and vulnerable” but “not cringey or annoying…or whatever” Minna is online. They are both fixated on noble ideals of truth and transparency, while hiding behind many layers of obfuscation and pretension.

While Minna overshares intimacies to her many followers and presents as unflappable, she’s deeply insecure and hiding the fact that she’s a long-time fan of Frank’s show behind a fake boyfriend. While Frank aims to create an atmosphere of mutual trust, he clams up after revealing his own insecurities and sexual fantasies. As their conversation unfurls, Minna and Frank are each forced to confront their mutual attraction and deceit.

I Probably Shouldn’t Be Telling You This is a playful musing on the corrosive effects of online performativity on human connection. At the film’s end, audiences are left to draw their own conclusions about whether a faux conservative e-girl and an empty vessel podcast bro are capable of true intimacy beneath the many layers of artifice, or if it’s all just another performance for their voyeuristic audience.

Follow the film’s journey on writer and director Emma Weinswig’s IG.