Tiny Thing

Joshua Giuliano’s Tiny Thing is a darkly comedic film that captures the unraveling of a couple’s relationship when their romantic weekend away is derailed by a declaration of love and a tiny fly. Deftly blending comedy and horror, the film pushes its simple premise to the extreme to explore the fear of intimacy. 

At the outset, Tiny Thing could easily be mistaken for a romantic comedy as Lacy and Brian settle into their cabin, excited for a carefree weekend together. The mood is relaxed as they jump into the lake for a swim, joking with one another before enjoying a romantic steak dinner. Love is certainly in the air, but the camera lingers on unsettling details – a rotting deer’s head, the dying headlights, a meat thermometer – hinting ominously for what is to come. In a moment of intimacy, Lacy cautiously confesses her feelings, despite knowing that Brian would prefer to take things slow. When he doesn’t respond, it’s not long after that a tiny fly gets trapped in his ear. 

Britt Harris stars as Lacy, a woman who professes her love to her partner – only to be met with silence.

From this point, the shift from light romance to suicidal chaos doesn’t happen all at once, but gradually builds as Brian’s sanity frays and Lacy’s patience wears thin. Their failed attempts to remove the fly only works to heighten the tension between them and pushes Brian into full-blown panic mode. His subsequent mental breakdown is almost perversely satisfying to see, perhaps because the fly represents a twisted form of karmic retribution for his inability to reciprocate Lacy’s feelings. As the filmmaker explains, “the idea of getting a fly stuck in your ear speaks for itself, but the aspect that finally sold me on committing to this short was the idea of being resistant to intimacy with a partner and the chaos that ensues when one person refuses to open themselves up to the other”. In witnessing Brian at his worst, Lacy comes to a painful realization: he is selfish and incapable of love.

“My instinct for Tiny Thing was to go in the opposite direction and make something composed entirely of static shots”

Tiny Thing’s narrative draws from the director’s own personal experience, with a strong emphasis on the characters’ emotional journey. Reflecting on his approach, Giuliano shared, “My previous short (In Sound, We Live Forever) was highly cinematic in a sweeping and visually-forward kind of way, so my instinct for Tiny Thing was to go in the opposite direction and make something composed entirely of static shots. This allowed me to focus on directing my actors above all else, which is something my previous, less dialogue-heavy shorts didn’t provide me with the opportunity to do.” The performances by both Jacob DeMonte-Finn and Britt Harris work to ground the film in reality, making its disturbing conclusion feel all the more believable.

Giuliano is currently working on a handful of exciting projects. He will be shooting his feature debut later this year, while also working on a script with a major studio with another spec in rewrites for an independent production company.