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Write what you know, says every writer's manual ever. The new movie "Sebastian" is about potential drawbacks to that approach when what's being written about is sex work. So critic Bob Mondello's review will, of course, deal with adult subject matter. He found the film provocative.
BOB MONDELLO, BYLINE: Max is a 25-year-old magazine writer who's been working on a novel about a male escort named Sebastian. The stories in it are graphic, explicit, filled with intimate detail. As he reads one to his writer's group, it feels authentic.
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RUARIDH MOLLICA: (As Max, reading) Sebastian stood there by the window over London, looking at both the city and himself with a new perspective. Daniel's hands found him and pulled at his skin and flesh as hungrily as a mouse seeking water in the desert. He didn't just want. He needed. This was the relief he had from his family, his job, his other life. Sebastian, in that moment, felt that he was living more authentically than Daniel.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) That's good.
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MONDELLO: Afterwards, at lunch, Max fields questions...
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SELINA BOYACK: (As Gloria) Did you speak to actual prostitutes for your research then?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) I think Gloria means sex workers (laughter).
MOLLICA: (As Max) Yeah. What initially drew me to the topic was this piece I did for World Magazine last year.
MONDELLO: None of this is true. Max is doing research of a more direct sort. Young and gay, he's created an online profile as an escort named Sebastian and is meeting clients, then writing up his encounters. He worries to a colleague at the magazine that what he's coming up with might be superficial.
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MOLLICA: (As Max) I mean, yeah, it's atmospheric, sure, but is it really saying anything?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character) Max, not everything needs to be some grand statement, you know, if it's well observed, if it's truthful.
MONDELLO: Of course, she doesn't know how he's managing it. Max worries that if she did or if his editors at the magazine knew, he'd no longer be the golden boy who gets great interviews, some with writers who also know a little something about polite society's sexual fringes.
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UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (As character) As for Easton Ellis, I think this one's for you.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #5: (As character) But didn't I ask first?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (As character) Actually, I think Max beat you to it. But in any case, I do think it best that queer writers cover queer authors.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #5: (As character) I thought that priority here was quality reporting, not optics.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (As character) It's not about optics. It's about sensibility, sensitivity.
MONDELLO: That dovetails neatly with Max's working method, but filmmaker Mikko Makela is already suggesting conflicts. Max thinks he's playing an escort as his editors ask for ever franker material. But when does playing tip over into being? When there's a connection maybe with, say, a retired editor who takes an interest in him?
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JONATHAN HYDE: (As Nicholas) You're studying, aren't you? I thought your profile mentioned.
MOLLICA: (As Max) Yeah, I'm doing my master's at the moment.
HYDE: (As Nicholas) Oh. What in?
MONDELLO: Max tries to initiate something more physical.
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HYDE: (As Nicholas) Sorry. Could we just keep talking for now?
MOLLICA: (As Max) Are you sure?
HYDE: (As Nicholas) I just want to get to know you a little better first.
MONDELLO: British character actor Jonathan Hyde is understated and dignified as the editor who gets past Max's defenses, while relative newcomer Ruaridh Mollica lets you see every chink in Max's armor just before a piece of that armor falls away. As publication date approaches and his risk of exposure rises...
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MAISIE BROOKER: (As character) Can we get a couple more, just very close up on the face? Once this comes out, your face is going to be on the top of everyone's feed.
MONDELLO: The film flirts with trauma, but it ends up feeling surprisingly affirmative, even as it raises intriguing questions about who gets to tell whose story or why that should matter. Would the questions even come up if Max had gone undercover to write about Sebastian the tech worker rather than Sebastian the sex worker? But then, would anyone have thought it worth making that movie? I'm Bob Mondello.
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