Chris Knipp
08-01-2024, 06:04 PM
http://www.chrisknipp.com/images/%20sebk.jpg
RUARIDH MOLLICA IN SEBASTIAN
MIKKO MAKELÄ: SEBASTIAN (2024)
Conflicting occupations, double life
In this sexually graphic film, the riveting young Scots actor Ruaridh ("Rory") Mollica plays Max, a hotshot young gay writer with a book deal and a cushy gig at a literary magazine - who has a serous conflict for his time and attention. He has a collection of short stories and a story published in Granta. He has a few admirers and will soon have a lot more when his photo is prominently displayed with an interview. But by night, as"Sebastian," he has sex with men for money. He uses a gay hookup website ("Dreamy Guys") to set up appointments with paying clientele who are frequently older. These sexual exploits become fodder for Max’s writing, including the novel he is currently at work on. No one in his life—not his editor, his family, or his best friend Amna (Hiftu Quasem, in a thankless sympathetic-ear role)—knows that Max is actually writing not based on interviews, as he claims, but on journaling about his own experiences.
More than that, Max is very much into this "Sebastian" life--and the men he has sex with. So much so that the irregular hours are beginning to impinge on his above-ground life, and he is let go, for missing deadlines and meetings, by the literary magazine he has counted on being a regular part of. (The editor, played by Lara Rossi, has been a prime bitch to him from the start.) Apart from the titillating sex worker details (and sex) , there's the constant tension in the film created by the dual lives of Max and Sebastian, who are sooner or later going to get this young man caught out.
This is, in a sense, a luxury dilemma. Given Max's success in both his roles, it takes a while for the references to the urban loneliness of his London life to convince us, though they do after a while. What we can see is that Max may be entering into a consuming, unhealthy addiction. But perhaps he's just simply found a safe way to play Jean Genet. As a sex worker, he can sample a gritty life that's more intense and real than lit mags, prizes and post-grad work and provides great fodder for writing. He's probably read John Rechy and been attracted to the seedy glamor of that kind of writing. (Mollica, the young actor from Edinburgh, did read Recny to prepare for the part, with lots of others.)
Max thinks a lot about Bret Easton Ellis, but that bitchy editor, who stole the job of interviewing Ellis from a straight guy and gave it to gay Max, has stolen it again and given it back to the straight guy. The editorial manipulation is pretty heavily underlined here.
There are lots of sharp little details like this - perhaps too sharp - yet the literary background still feels generic at times. Sebastian's encounters as a sex worker, though move vivid, also run that risk. It would be hard to keep Sebastian's encounters with his needy older gay clients from seeming familiar, despite an unusually large dollop of realistic-looking anal sex being added. There is arguably more sex than is needed, and the sex with a less old client and a guy of his own age picked up at a bar doesn't significantly add to the story.
But, hold on. . . this is about a sex worker, even if one who's also becoming a successful writer, so how can we complain? When Max isn't having the sex he's writing about it, or the process of making money from it, and then the more three-dimensional relationships that develop with two clients, Daniel (Ingvar Sigurdsson) and Nicholas (Jonathan Hyde). The one with Nicholas is better and safer than the one with Daniel.
Why, despite its efforts to provide detail and atmosphere, doesn't Sebastian leave a stronger impression? Perhaps we've already answered that question. As Ryan Lattanzio wrote in IndieWire (https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/sebastian-review-mikko-makela-1234946816/), the movie "is never as piercing as star Mollica’s eyes and chiseled face." But the lead's intense presence does hold us and radiate so strongly it adds depth here. Mollica, who is in every scene, saves the film, because he's so watchable and so intense. It's an intensity of repression. This is felt not only with literary associates and sex clients from whom Max, aka Sebastian, is hiding his true self, but especially in Max's calls to his mother in Edinburgh and his visit up there, which poignantly highlights the darkness and loneliness of his London life. If you are hiding from everyone, you really are alone.
There are also two portraits both sympathetic and cruel of the kind of men who are clients for someone like Sebastian, gay men with money, taste, beautiful surroundings, and lonely lives.
This film may not have the originality and confidence (or the emotional heft) of Andrew Haigh's Weekend and All of Us Strangers, or the assurance of those two screenplay's structures. The ending just trails off, with that cliche of the young protagonist with his 400 blows behind him ready for the future starting into the camera. But Mollica is a compelling actor and one to watch for.
Sebastian, 110 mins., debuted at Sundance Jan., 21,, 2024, showing also at, Inside-Out Toronto May, New Fest Pride New York May, Provincetown Jun. 13.
RUARIDH MOLLICA IN SEBASTIAN
MIKKO MAKELÄ: SEBASTIAN (2024)
Conflicting occupations, double life
In this sexually graphic film, the riveting young Scots actor Ruaridh ("Rory") Mollica plays Max, a hotshot young gay writer with a book deal and a cushy gig at a literary magazine - who has a serous conflict for his time and attention. He has a collection of short stories and a story published in Granta. He has a few admirers and will soon have a lot more when his photo is prominently displayed with an interview. But by night, as"Sebastian," he has sex with men for money. He uses a gay hookup website ("Dreamy Guys") to set up appointments with paying clientele who are frequently older. These sexual exploits become fodder for Max’s writing, including the novel he is currently at work on. No one in his life—not his editor, his family, or his best friend Amna (Hiftu Quasem, in a thankless sympathetic-ear role)—knows that Max is actually writing not based on interviews, as he claims, but on journaling about his own experiences.
More than that, Max is very much into this "Sebastian" life--and the men he has sex with. So much so that the irregular hours are beginning to impinge on his above-ground life, and he is let go, for missing deadlines and meetings, by the literary magazine he has counted on being a regular part of. (The editor, played by Lara Rossi, has been a prime bitch to him from the start.) Apart from the titillating sex worker details (and sex) , there's the constant tension in the film created by the dual lives of Max and Sebastian, who are sooner or later going to get this young man caught out.
This is, in a sense, a luxury dilemma. Given Max's success in both his roles, it takes a while for the references to the urban loneliness of his London life to convince us, though they do after a while. What we can see is that Max may be entering into a consuming, unhealthy addiction. But perhaps he's just simply found a safe way to play Jean Genet. As a sex worker, he can sample a gritty life that's more intense and real than lit mags, prizes and post-grad work and provides great fodder for writing. He's probably read John Rechy and been attracted to the seedy glamor of that kind of writing. (Mollica, the young actor from Edinburgh, did read Recny to prepare for the part, with lots of others.)
Max thinks a lot about Bret Easton Ellis, but that bitchy editor, who stole the job of interviewing Ellis from a straight guy and gave it to gay Max, has stolen it again and given it back to the straight guy. The editorial manipulation is pretty heavily underlined here.
There are lots of sharp little details like this - perhaps too sharp - yet the literary background still feels generic at times. Sebastian's encounters as a sex worker, though move vivid, also run that risk. It would be hard to keep Sebastian's encounters with his needy older gay clients from seeming familiar, despite an unusually large dollop of realistic-looking anal sex being added. There is arguably more sex than is needed, and the sex with a less old client and a guy of his own age picked up at a bar doesn't significantly add to the story.
But, hold on. . . this is about a sex worker, even if one who's also becoming a successful writer, so how can we complain? When Max isn't having the sex he's writing about it, or the process of making money from it, and then the more three-dimensional relationships that develop with two clients, Daniel (Ingvar Sigurdsson) and Nicholas (Jonathan Hyde). The one with Nicholas is better and safer than the one with Daniel.
Why, despite its efforts to provide detail and atmosphere, doesn't Sebastian leave a stronger impression? Perhaps we've already answered that question. As Ryan Lattanzio wrote in IndieWire (https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/sebastian-review-mikko-makela-1234946816/), the movie "is never as piercing as star Mollica’s eyes and chiseled face." But the lead's intense presence does hold us and radiate so strongly it adds depth here. Mollica, who is in every scene, saves the film, because he's so watchable and so intense. It's an intensity of repression. This is felt not only with literary associates and sex clients from whom Max, aka Sebastian, is hiding his true self, but especially in Max's calls to his mother in Edinburgh and his visit up there, which poignantly highlights the darkness and loneliness of his London life. If you are hiding from everyone, you really are alone.
There are also two portraits both sympathetic and cruel of the kind of men who are clients for someone like Sebastian, gay men with money, taste, beautiful surroundings, and lonely lives.
This film may not have the originality and confidence (or the emotional heft) of Andrew Haigh's Weekend and All of Us Strangers, or the assurance of those two screenplay's structures. The ending just trails off, with that cliche of the young protagonist with his 400 blows behind him ready for the future starting into the camera. But Mollica is a compelling actor and one to watch for.
Sebastian, 110 mins., debuted at Sundance Jan., 21,, 2024, showing also at, Inside-Out Toronto May, New Fest Pride New York May, Provincetown Jun. 13.