“6 Years,” Hannah Fidell’s follow-up to 2013’s “A Teacher,” starts off real steamy. College students Melanie (Taissa Farmiga) and Dan (Ben Rosenfield, “Boardwalk Empire”) have been together for — you guessed it — six years, but their sex life is showing no signs of slowing down. The first seven minutes of the SXSW favorite have been released, and within seconds of the film’s opening, viewers are thrust into exceptionally close quarters with the couple, who are doing some thrusting of their own. Giggles, moans, kisses and looks of adoration seem to suggest that the sparks between the two are still burning bright.
What follows is a montage of the pair enjoying each other’s company — and making no secret of it with unapologetic displays of public affection — on the beach and at a bar with friends. Melanie and Dan eventually, if temporarily part, when the night takes them in different directions. But even when he’s not around, Dan is on Melanie’s mind: She drunkenly confides in a friend that she’s already imagining their kids.
But the illusion of a picture-perfect romance is shattered when Dan realizes Melanie drove to his house seriously under the influence. Their fight includes name-calling, cursing, even a physical altercation. Seven minutes in, and already we hear Dan call his sweetheart a “fucking idiot.”
“Mark Duplass called me up and asked if I wanted to do a film about a co-dependent, abusive relationship between a young couple,” Fidell shared with Women and Hollywood. She explained, “I love fucked-up relationship dramas… so the challenge of writing a film that was both relatable but also subversive was what originally piqued my interest.”
The improv-based drama is now available to watch on VOD. You can watch a clip of the film’s first seven minutes over at Vulture.
