Miss Freelance, the latest short from budding filmmaker
Matthew Kyle Levine, is a cold and hardened look at relationships. We follow
Maddy Murphy’s Carly, an escort in New York City, as she bounces between johns,
letting the buzzing rumble of the city ring through in the background. It takes
a page out of works like Steven Soderbergh’s The Girlfriend Experience in how
it creates a moody and unglamourised depiction of the work involved, one that
ends up unearthing a lot of truths in regards to any kind of relationship,
whether money changes hands or not.
Carly’s encounter with her partner Ben, played by Timothy J.
Cox, is where the major truths come out in the open. While Ben feels neglected
in their relationship, Carly feels that what they have together isn’t “real”.
With her johns, they often save up money just to afford time with her, showing
that they care about the time they spend together. It shows quite a bit about
how validation plays into relationship dynamics, with happiness being the
result of both parties giving as much as they take, and it’s something that
Carly feels more strongly with her work than her off-hours time.
It packs in a lot of quiet contemplation in just under 20
minutes, letting Levine and Alex Scarlatos’ visuals and editing do most of the
talking, and it makes for a pretty sombre viewing experience. It’s the kind of
short that unravels in the mind after first viewing, as I admit that I find
myself questioning the relationships in my own life in response to the tango of
money and intimacy that is given here.
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