In our interview: Michael Doshier: “You have the right to outwardly claim the desires of your heart.”
Photos: THT/James Randall Chumbley
Palm Springs, CA (The Hollywood Times) 8/28/26 – Throuple brought its wonderfully messy take on modern queer love to the Mary Pickford Theatre Thursday night for a special desert screening presented by The Filmmakers’ Gallery.
The August 27 event featured screenwriter and star Michael Doshier in person, with George Sinatra moderating a lively post-screening talkback with the filmmaker. The evening also had a charitable purpose, with 20% of the proceeds benefiting The LGBTQ Community Center of the Desert.
Before the film, guests gathered for a VIP lobby mix-and-mingle, giving the evening the feeling of both a community fundraiser and a celebration of independent LGBTQ+ filmmaking.
And Throuple certainly gave the audience plenty to talk about afterward.
The film may begin with a provocative romantic premise, what happens when a single gay man becomes involved with a married gay couple? but it quickly becomes something much more interesting.
Written by and starring Doshier, Throuple is funny, sexy and surprisingly tender, exploring friendship, loneliness, jealousy and the often-confusing process of figuring out exactly what, and whom, you want.
Doshier plays Michael, a thirty-something Brooklyn singer-songwriter who seems to be drifting through both his creative and romantic life.
His day job pays the bills, but music is where his heart really lives. Unfortunately, inspiration has become increasingly difficult to find.
Michael shares his life with his longtime best friend Tristan, played by Tristan Carter-Jones, a performer whose own world appears to be moving forward much more decisively. Tristan is becoming increasingly serious about her girlfriend Abby, played by Jess Gabor, while Michael remains stuck somewhere between desperately wanting intimacy and being frightened by what intimacy actually demands.
Then he meets married couple Georgie, played by Stanton Plummer-Cambridge, and Connor, played by Tommy Heleringer.
There is an immediate attraction between the three men.
What initially looks like it could become an uncomplicated sexual encounter develops into something none of them quite understands.
That is where Throuple becomes much more than its title.
The movie has plenty of fun with the awkwardness, excitement and sexual energy surrounding Michael’s involvement with two husbands, but it doesn’t treat their relationship as a gimmick.
Michael isn’t simply entering somebody else’s marriage.
Georgie and Connor aren’t merely looking for an entertaining addition to theirs.
All three bring different needs, expectations and insecurities into the relationship, and those differences become increasingly difficult to ignore.
Doshier makes Michael very easy to watch because he doesn’t try to make him perfect.
Far from it.
Michael can be impulsive, selfish, needy and occasionally infuriating. But he is also vulnerable, funny and sincere. You understand why people are drawn to him even when you also understand why they sometimes want to shake him.
His desire to be loved is obvious.
His ability to understand what love requires from him is another matter entirely.
That contradiction gives Throuple much of its emotional heart.
Just as important as the central romance is Michael’s friendship with Tristan.
Their relationship has become an emotional home for Michael, perhaps so much so that he assumes it will always remain exactly as it has been.
But Tristan has a life of her own.
When she and Abby begin moving toward a future together, Michael has to face something many people can relate to loving someone doesn’t mean you get to determine the shape of their life.
For a movie centered around a romantic relationship involving three men, some of its strongest moments are actually about friendship and what happens when the person you have always depended upon begins building a life that doesn’t revolve around you.
The Brooklyn independent music scene gives Throuple much of its energy.
Musicians, performances, clubs and creative personalities surround the characters, giving the film a freewheeling atmosphere that perfectly suits a story about people refusing to live according to somebody else’s relationship rules.
Music also becomes part of Michael’s emotional awakening.
As his romantic life becomes more complicated, he is forced to confront the artistic part of himself he has allowed to remain dormant.
In many ways, Michael’s fear of putting himself fully into a relationship isn’t terribly different from his fear of putting himself fully into his music.
Both require vulnerability.
And Michael isn’t always very comfortable with vulnerability.
Visually, the film has a playful independent spirit, using split screens, colorful graphics, energetic editing and musical performances to keep the story moving.
But beneath the sex, comedy and nightlife is an unexpectedly universal idea.
Relationships rarely operate as neatly as people would like them to.
Three people can love one another and still hurt one another.
Two people can be married and discover their relationship is changing.
Best friends can adore each other and still grow in different directions.
And wanting somebody does not necessarily mean you know how to love them well.
That is far more compelling than simply asking whether a three-person relationship can work.
Doshier’s performance carries much of the film. He allows Michael to be insecure, ridiculous and exasperating while maintaining an underlying sweetness that keeps the audience invested in him.
Carter-Jones is equally important as Tristan, giving Michael both affection and resistance. Their friendship grounds the film and prevents it from becoming solely about the romantic triangle.
Plummer-Cambridge and Heleringer also make Georgie and Connor feel like individuals rather than simply “the married couple.”
That matters.
The film works best when Michael, Georgie and Connor stop feeling like an unconventional relationship concept and simply become three people attempting to negotiate attraction, love, jealousy, expectations and boundaries.
There is something refreshing about a queer film in which being LGBTQ+ isn’t the problem anyone is trying to solve.
These characters are already living openly.
Their problems are communication, commitment, friendship, ambition, insecurity and love, the beautifully inconvenient things that complicate relationships for everyone.
That also made Thursday night’s screening feel particularly appropriate as a benefit for The LGBTQ Community Center of the Desert.
The evening wasn’t simply about watching an LGBTQ+ film. It brought filmmakers and the local community together while supporting an organization that serves that community year-round.
Following the screening, George Sinatra’s conversation with Michael Doshier gave the audience an opportunity to go deeper into the filmmaking process, the inspiration behind the characters and the very personal story Doshier chose to put on screen.
Throuple is playful enough to enjoy the provocative nature of its premise but smart enough not to stop there.
Ultimately, it is less about three people being in a relationship than it is about people learning to speak honestly about what they want.
And perhaps more importantly, learning that everyone else gets to want something too.
Sometimes the person who most desperately wants to be chosen still has a little growing to do before learning how to truly choose someone else.
About the Special Screening
The August 27 screening of Throuple was presented by The Filmmakers’ Gallery, the nonprofit organization founded by Paul Belsito and Steven Roche.
The evening included a VIP reception, the feature presentation and a post-screening filmmaker talkback moderated by George Sinatra with Throuple screenwriter and star Michael Doshier.
Twenty percent of the evening’s proceeds benefited The LGBTQ Community Center of the Desert.
Interviews coming soon
