Max (Ruaridh Mollica) is like many young writers I met in my 20s. Ambitious, smart, rather dashing when talking about an art he\u2019s passionate about, which in his case, is literature and the work of enfant terrible<\/i> writer Bret Easton Ellis. Max is a touch cocky for a freelancer, he\u2019s known to accidentally alienate friends and colleagues with harsh words, and thinks he knows better than his editors. However, unlike most reasonable writers, he\u2019ll stop at nothing to find inspiration, even if it puts him in danger.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On his quest for the bestselling debut novel, Max takes on the persona and name of Sebastian \u2013 which also gives this movie its title \u2013 to go undercover as a sex worker in search of stories to tell. He learns the new digital sex work landscape, meets clients of all kinds, and flits from one\u2019s bed to another\u2019s couch, typing away about the encounters once he\u2019s back in the safety of his computer. But his muse comes with the very real dangers of sexual assault and abuse, especially if any of his clients were to learn the truth about why Sebastian is really doing in their home. At the same time, the 25-year-old writer is facing off against the whims of the publishing industry, requests to be more active on social media, and morphing himself into becoming a celebrated author \u2013 with the pressure that his work will live up to expectations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Written and directed by Mikko M\u00e4kel\u00e4, \u201cSebastian\u201d plays like a cautionary tale about toxic ambition. From the start, our main character Max is vocal about his goals, with the hunger to move up shining in his eyes, even as he\u2019s missing deadlines to chase flashier assignments. It\u2019s almost unpleasant to watch how desperately he wants to climb the ladder before the years catch up to him. At one point, he compares himself to his hero and sadly notes how he\u2019s already older than when Bret Easton Ellis was when he first arrived on the literary scene. As both Max and Sebastian, Ruaridh Mollica delivers a nuanced performance, navigating the young writer\u2019s fears and confidence with equal measure. He plays the character sympathetically even when he\u2019s at his most petulant or manipulative. Yet Mollica\u2019s scenes with Jonathan Hyde, who plays one of Max\u2019s older clients seeking companionship, are beautifully tender \u2013 like an antidote to the movie\u2019s harsher scenes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As with his difficult hero, M\u00e4kel\u00e4 can be also tough to figure out. In trying to run away from the trappings of a tragic queer story, which Max even points out in a tense meeting with his publisher, the movie ends up running right into some of its own tropes, especially in the sour moments of Max\u2019s escapades. Our protagonist is shown to be rather isolated, very much in his own head, and keeping others \u2013 as well as the audience \u2013 at bay. When he\u2019s left alone, he is at his most vulnerable, sometimes crying but we\u2019re not entirely sure why \u2013 does he regret following his yearning for success? Does he regret the emotional toll of sex work? It\u2019s also not quite clear what drove Max to picking up sex work for the sake of his book, although its encroachment into his life and free time plays out pretty organically with his ambitious personality. M\u00e4kel\u00e4 and his cinematographer Iikka Salminen draw on a dark color palette shaped by the fluorescent lighting of newer buildings and hotels, and the occasional venture into the warmth of a client\u2019s home and the neon refuge of clubs. It\u2019s as if the room itself will set the tone for the encounter-to-come, and perhaps it\u2019s why when something goes awry, there\u2019s a sense of betrayal, the destruction of safety in the harsh light of a reality check.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Max (Ruaridh Mollica) is like many young writers I met in my 20s. Ambitious, smart, rather dashing when talking about an art he\u2019s passionate about, which in his case, is literature and the work of enfant terrible writer Bret Easton Ellis. Max is a touch cocky for a freelancer, he\u2019s known to accidentally alienate friends …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[45],"class_list":["post-1468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drama-movies","tag-drama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1468\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}