Ashley Bell and Michael Stahl-David in Love & Air Sex. Photo courtesy Tribeca Film
Austin filmmaker, Bryan Poyser's third feature, Love & Air Sex (formerly known as The Bounceback) -- following Dear Pillow and Lovers of Hate -- world premiered at the 2013 SXSW Film Festival last March. Since then, the bawdy rom-com/bromance has been on a roll, introducing the festival circuit to the wonders of Air Sex (did you know there are World Championships?) and reminding them that Austin is at the center of the current indie-film zeitgeist.
According to Variety, Poyser is "channeling such mid 90s relationship pics as Clerks and Swingers." (We couldn't agree more.) Currently available on VOD and digital platforms across the U.S. and Canada, Love & Air Sex kicks off its theatrical Road Show in NYC this weekend.
The film centers on two couples who can't decide whether they love each other, hate each other, or simply can't live without each other. Cathy (Ashley Bell, The Last Exorcism) and Stan (Michael Stahl-David, Cloverfield) are former lovers who reunite in Austin for one fateful weekend, separately visiting their best friends (an ex-couple whose rage rages on) Kara (Sara Paxton, Aquamarine) and Jeff (Zach Cregger, The Whitest Kids'U Know).
Initially broken-hearted and possibly on the verge of getting back together, Cathy and Stan tentatively stick their toes back into the dating pool, wondering if there are indeed other fish in the sea. At the same time, Kara and Jeff are waging a battle on a very public stage: the afore-mentioned Air Sex World Championships. (Paxton and Cregger give hilarious, no-holds-barred, very NSFW performances, believe you me.) Love & Air Sex is a raucous and rowdy rom-com that feels wholly fresh and authentic.
We caught up with Bell and Stahl-David in New York, where both are coincidentally performing on stage this month: she in Machinal, starring Rebecca Hall, and he in Amanda Peet's The Commons of Pensacola (he plays Sarah Jessica Parker's boyfriend). They talked with us about the things that can go wrong on the Broadway stage (Bell reports on the oh-my-God mishap on her opening night), the swimming holes of Austin, and the ongoing mission to rescue wild elephants in Cambodia. It's a wild ride!
See Love & Air Sex today on VOD or at Cinema Village on Friday, February 7. The Love & Air Sex Road Show continues over the next few months.
Watch the trailer: