Written And Directed by Mikko Mäkelä
Max: "You can ask me anything."
For my Easter Sunday, I eschewed anything religious and went for something a bit more provocative instead. This was another film I've been wanting to catch up on since hearing about it late last year.
Focusing on a writer named Max Williamson (Ruaridh Mollica), this movie had the 25 year old at a crossroads in his life. His freelance writing wasn't as satisfying as he wanted it to be and the magazine he was writing for were also about to close the door on him altogether. Luckily for Max, he had a novel in the making.
Yes, an erotic novel focusing on sex work but potentially with a new perspective with his editor Dionne (Leanne Best) more than happy to give him notes on where to improve it. At least Max had the support of his best friend, Amna (Hiftu Quasem) who even took him to Brussels as a birthday present to cheer him up.
Getting back to the novel part, Max assumed the identity of Sebastian for the sake of his creativity and embarked on actual sex work himself in order to get a better insight into things. This led to different encounters with men like Daniel (Ingvar Sigurdsson) and Oliver (Pedro Minas). One of those encounters also backfired on Max when they found out what he was really up.
However it also led to a relationship of sorts with an older gentleman named Nicholas (Jonathan Hyde). It's an interesting dynamic between the two with Nicholas being initially resistant to physical intimacy with Max before encouraging the latter to continue with his novel.
By the end of this movie, Max/Sebastian had seemingly learned a lot from his experiences and encounters with the men in life. Not to mention the women in his life, including his own mother in Scotland. Going by the last thing he said, he's also quite the open book.
- OnlyFans gets a name drop and Max did admit to a photographer that he had a small following on Instagram.
- This is the fourth movie that Mikko Mäkelä has directed. A Moment In The Reeds is another gay themed movie of his I intend to watch at some point.
- There's an amusing continuity error with the movement of a chest tattoo.
- Chronology: Present day London, Scotland and Brussels.
I really liked Sebastian as a movie. It's provocative without feeling like it's trying too hard, the main story engaged as did Ruaridh Mollica, performance wise and the sex scenes were both tasteful and plentiful. All in all, a worthwhile watch.
Rating: 7 out of 10
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