Max (Ruaridh Mollica) resembles a lot of young authors I met when I was in my twenties. Sebastian is quite ambitious, intelligent, and extremely eloquent while discussing his favorite type of art that in his case is literature and works by enfant terrible writer Bret Easton Ellis. Max is a little bit too proud for a freelancer; he unintentionally uses harsh words with friends and colleagues that occasionally make them hate him; plus he always believes it’s better to be edited by himself than others. On the other hand, being unlike most sensible writers, he would do anything in order to find inspiration even if it means risking his life.
In search for the best selling debuting novel, Max takes on the character and name of Sebastian – hence the movie’s title – to go undercover as a prostitute needing stories. He grasps the state-of-art cyber sex business sphere, gets exposed to different clients from all walks of life while hopping from one bed to another couch or chair typing about these meetings once back behind his PC screen. However, this muse comes with some real dangers like sexual assaults especially if any of his clients knew why Sebastian was really doing in their homes. Meanwhile this 25-year-old author must also deal with publishers’ whims as well as pleas to have more followers on social media pages while metamorphosing into an acclaimed author – with all anxiety whether his work will ever match up with what everybody anticipates.
Sebastian directed by Mikko Mäkelä and written by him feels like a warning against toxic ambition. Right away we know that our protagonist has ambitions since he clearly enunciates them revealing how eager he is not only through wanting such things but through missing deadlines in pursuit of other colorful projects.
It is almost painful seeing someone desperately trying to get ahead before time catches up with him In one scene he compares himself to his idol admitting how old he already is compared to when Bret Easton Ellis first appeared in the literary scene. Ruaridh Mollica does a good job playing both Max and Sebastian, delivering an understated performance that perfectly captures the young writer’s mix of trepidation and arrogance. Even when he is at his most bratty or calculating, he portrays him sympathetically. However, his scenes with Jonathan Hyde as one of Max’s older clients seeking companionship are touching – they have this softness to them contrasting with most parts of the film.
Like his troubled hero, Mäkelä can also be quite difficult to understand. In an attempt to avoid being yet another sad gay story unwittingly brought up by Max during one intense meeting with his publisher, this film falls into some very familiar traps including sour moments of Max’s life. Our protagonist is portrayed as rather introverted, deeply thinking just too much and distancing himself from others – audience included.
When he’s alone, it is when he is most vulnerable or crying for no reason and we can’t tell – does he regret choosing to follow his desires towards glory? Does Max regret what being a male escort did to him emotionally? The decision behind Max’s involvement in sex work for the sake of his book is not clearly explained although its gradual intrusion into his life and leisure time are developed quite organically around his driven personality.
äkelä utilizes Iikka Salminen as cinematographer to create a dark color palette using fluorescent lighting from new hotels and buildings with occasional ventures into the warmth of clients’ homes and neon refuges of clubs. It will appear that this room itself will determine how things go next maybe this is why when something goes wrong there is a sense of betrayal, loss of safety in the bright light of hard facts.
Mäkelä’s second feature film after “A Moment in the Reeds” offers us a complicated youth portrait. With Mollica’s intense performance gaining attention from the audience, Makela involves viewers in Sebastian’s story where he has followed fortunes and recoveries, lived through sharp rejections and faced dangers to be exposed as an author who uses dates with strangers for his publicizing novel named as “Selling Sex.” In close-up shots of Max, Mäkelä displays several moments of unease, desire, pain and lust in these situations. So much remains unspoken during such strained meeting between strangers sizing each other up before giving themselves over into one another’s arms. However gloomy its aesthetic might be, there is something affirming about a stranger who wants to read your writing and about owning words and stories.
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