Publication Date: 01-04-2026

Fuck Me, Richard (2023) review

Dir. Lucy McKendrick and Charlie Polinger

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★★

Intermixing the influx in online romance scams and the isolation that’s consumed American society since the COVID-19 pandemic, Lucy McKendrick and Charlie Polinger’s short Fuck Me, Richard is significantly less scandalous than its title suggests. Save for some brief, steamy sex scenes, this is a powerful mediation on our romantic vulnerabilities and a virtual society that’s brought on a whole new litany of concerns.

McKendrick, who also wrote the short, plays Sally, a single woman nursing an injured leg. Zonked off of painkillers, she watches Brief Encounter — a 1945 drama about two strangers who engage in a passionate affair — and the glassy expression in her eyes suggests she’d take the opportunity to indulge in something even half as romantic, however brief. A few beats later, we watched her swipe, and swipe, and swipe, and then match on a dating app through the reflection in her iris.

She matches with Richard (voiced Nathan Wallace), who lives in another part of the world, perhaps even another country. It’s not quite concretized. The two talk for hours, mostly as Sally lies in bed, or on the bathroom floor, injured and reeling. They have phone sex. And then Richard promises to fly in to see her. When he doesn’t show, he tells Sally that his mother has been in a bad accident, with lacerated organs, and needs $4,000 for surgery. Sally offers to send him a check. So it begins.

Shot on 35mm, which makes the homey wallpaper and coziness of Sally’s apartment pop, McKendrick and Polinger strike a gorgeous visual harmony in Fuck Me, Richard. Early in the short, Sally’s blinds are drawn with very little light peeking through. Eventually, that changes and sunlight starts to radiate through her apartment, in conjunction with her rehab progressing and the strength in her leg slowly coming back. The increased visual brightness runs parallel to Sally’s mood, which seems to improve even as Richard’s story grows more suspect. We’re so hyper-focused on McKendrick’s Sally that I believe there isn’t a single scene in which she’s not present, which allows for the immersion of her experience to take shape.

Fuck Me, Richard is a lot more uplifting than you’d expect on premise alone. It says a great deal about romance culture without saying too much. It harbors the qualities you want in a pithy story that you hope stays with you after its runtime. This one fits the bill.

NOTE: Fuck Me, Richard can be viewed in its entirety on Vimeo, free of charge.

NOTE II: Charlie Polinger went on direct the critically acclaimed film The Plague, which was released in late 2025. You can read my review of it here.

Starring: Lucy McKendrick, Nathan Wallace, and Kam Metcalf. Directed by: Lucy McKendrick and Charlie Polinger.