Sebastian

Well, I've never used a sex worker in London so had no idea about the huge sums of money to be earned. £300 an hour! That's serious money. No wonder the impoverished students who formed the basis of Max's initial research got into the trade.

Max's odyssey through the world of escorts engendered tensions. He was earning huge sums while using the clients for his novel but also beginning to form relationships with some of them.

Max developed personally too in a different way. His initial reluctance to be known disappeared as we saw in the very last line of dialogue in the film.

I found the characters in the film to have been well rounded and believable. The script was well written and captured the world Max was living in extremely well.

I'm glad I saw this.

Max is a 25-year-old aspiring writer living in London. Alongside his journalist job, he works on his first novel, centered on gay male prostitution. Max finds his inspiration in an original way: he recounts his own experiences as an escort, under the alias of Sebastian. He is embodied on screen by Ruaridh Mollica, a charming and talented actor. Ruaridh perfectly conveys the inner complexity of his character. He is in almost every shot, including the numerous and graphic sex scenes that fortunately do not overpower the story. Writer-director Mikko Makela takes a non-judgmental approach to deal with topics such as the creative process, the world of escorts, self-discovery and self-acceptance. The images and colours are beautiful. The city, with its anonymity and loneliness, is a character in its own right. I found the movie interesting. It shows a raw side of current gay sexuality and correctly portrays a young artist in search of both success and identity.

A young writer explores sex workers circle for write a novel. But this adventure is not easy or cheep and, in profound manner, transforms him .

A not original theme , well reminded , well acted- especially Jonathan Hyde contribution represents a serious good point , realistic - the trace of a Julien Sorel in new version - and a good work of Ruaridh Mollica as Max.

In essence , a clash between editorial world and sex workers one , the reactions , the dialogue, the inspired last scene reminding, in cold - precise manner the laws of a confrontation who gives to young writer chance of significant transformation.

Great part - the relation with mother as oasis in the circle of chain of tensions.

Having never heard a single word about this, I thought I was going to see something trashy and lo and behold, it turns out I ended up viewing a good movie! Go figure! But seriously, while this has some imperfections, the quality here came as a great surprise. The writing, direction, cinematography and particularly the acting all have merits of varying degrees. A film about a smart young writer, successful at short stories, who decides to write a novel about gay sex workers and then decides to become one himself for authenticity only to become somewhat addicted to it all to the point that it is getting in the way of his writing about it. He hasn't the time for both! Ruaridh Mollica, who I never heard of prior to this, is really very good. His extremely bold performance is subtle, brave and he never really misses a beat. He's a bit mesmerizing. It would be cool to see how he is in other films, but that might be tricky here in America. All of the other actors are strong, particularly Jonathan Hyde, the only actor in this who might be familiar to the general American public. While he is good, his character's relationship with our young writer is problematic and where the film stumbles a bit. Mollica responds to him in very contradictory ways that are confusing. This has nothing to do with the acting. It's either the writing and/or the directing that falters here. This is not a great film, but it's really interesting film, though it is not for prudes. There are many sex scenes and one in particular is very explicit. It also has a truly lovely ending.

Despite the film's confident naturalism, it seems less intimate as it goes on, with Max somehow growing more distant and generic as he becomes more comfortable in his own skin.

Synopsis: Max (Ruaridh Mollica) is a 25-year-old aspiring novelist, living in London and paying his dues working at a literary magazine. Frustrated by his own ambitions and the pressures to succeed, Max begins moonlighting as a sex worker with the pseudonym Sebastian, secretly meeting men via an escorting platform and using his experiences to fuel his stories. What begins as a few furtive meetings soon becomes a hidden nocturnal life, and the debut novel that he has been longing to write finally seems within reach. Finding himself more comfortable as Sebastian than expected, yet determined to keep his exploits a secret, Max increasingly struggles to remain in control of a delicately balanced double-life. As he confronts conflicting feelings of ecstasy, shame, and exhilarating liberation, Max has to reckon with whether Sebastian is merely a writer's tool to achieve first-hand authenticity -- or whether something more is at stake.