Los Angeles, CA (The Hollywood Times) 8/8/26 – I have seen a lot of short films over the years, but The Intimacy Coordinator is definitely not like anything I have seen before.
And I mean that as a compliment.
Written, directed by and starring Louisa Connolly-Burnham, the film is dark, sexy, uncomfortable, funny in unexpected places and just twisted enough to keep you wondering where it is going next.
The premise alone got my attention: Kate is an intimacy coordinator. She is also a sex addict.
That contradiction is what makes the film so interesting.
Kate works in an environment where her job is all about boundaries, consent, communication and making other people feel safe during intimate scenes. Yet behind the scenes, her own relationship with intimacy is anything but controlled.
I really enjoyed the way the film plays with that tension.
We hear so much today about intimacy coordinators and their increasingly important role on film and television sets, but The Intimacy Coordinator takes that conversation somewhere completely different. Instead of simply showing us how the job works, the film asks what happens when the person responsible for creating boundaries is struggling with her own.
Louisa Connolly-Burnham gives Kate a fascinating mix of confidence and vulnerability. She can walk onto a set appearing completely in control, professional and composed, while underneath there is something much more complicated going on.
That made her unpredictable, and I liked that I could never quite figure her out.
The film also has a terrific cast, including Kieron Moore, Sophie Simnett, Alexander Arnold, Lindsay Duncan, David Mumeni and Toby Williams. Everyone seems to understand the unusual tone of the piece, which moves between psychological thriller, sexuality, dark humor and something almost voyeuristic.
There are moments that make you laugh, moments that make you uncomfortable and others where you may find yourself thinking, “Did that really just happen?”
For me, that is part of the fun.
It would have been very easy to make a film about intimacy coordination feel overly serious or instructional. Instead, Connolly-Burnham has created something provocative and entertaining while still raising real questions about sex, power, identity, desire and control.
And perhaps most importantly, it doesn’t tell us exactly what to think.
After watching it, I kept thinking about the irony at the center of the story: someone can be extraordinarily good at protecting other people’s boundaries while having absolutely no idea what to do with their own.
That is a pretty fascinating place to begin a thriller.
The Intimacy Coordinator is bold, strange, sexy and refreshingly different, exactly the kind of short film I enjoy discovering at a festival like HollyShorts.
I really enjoyed this one.
Reviewed by Valerie Milano
Senior Editor/Publisher
The Hollywood Times
