‘Sebastian’ Review – Sex Work Gets An Unflinching, Unfocused Reckoning [Sundance 2024]

Sex work is long overdue for a cinematic reckoning.

One of the world’s oldest professions has frequently been framed in films by society’s rampant neuroses and hypocrisies about sex overall. There are few deviations from the persistent themes of degradation, shame, and poverty that feed through works as varied as Les Miserables to Pretty Woman, My Own Private Idaho to Poor Things. Even films like the latter two that offer more nuanced depictions are still contextualized by the cultural insistence that sex work is bleak and ultimately tragic labor.

Sebastian, which premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, is a bold attempt at reclaiming the narrative. The sex work at the center of Finnish-British filmmaker Mikko Mäkelä’s sophomore feature is conducted by Max Williamson (Ruaridh Mollica), a young aspiring writer living in London. Rather than financial necessity, Max pursues sex work as foundational research for his debut novel, using his experiences as an escort named Sebastian as creative fuel. He recounts his passionate encounters while typing out his pages and tailors his sessions based on feedback from his publisher and workshop group. Max’s escorting soon bleeds into his public life as a freelance journalist and budding novelist by day, challenging his plausible objectivity and leading to transformative realizations about himself and his desires.

Of course, getting to those realizations requires plentiful experience. Mäkelä doesn’t hide from the explicit nature of Max’s profession, nor does he stick to one type of encounter. The film is unflinching and unsparing in depicting his encounters. It’s refreshing to see love scenes between partners of different body types and ages that are granted equal eroticism to their more conventional counterparts. Those scenes are most impactful when juxtaposed with Max’s recollection; you can feel how each encounter affected him as Mäkelä cuts from him typing and scribbling to a flashback session. As varied and plentiful as Max’s sex work is, the first act, where much of it occurs, feels aimless. Max has a clear end goal – gather enough experience to finish his novel – but the film meanders towards it, stumbling through interactions within and outside his escorting that seem to lack a purpose.

The chief culprit of the lilting focus is Max himself. Mäkelä plays with the idea of dual identities and double lives and how difficult it is to keep them wholly separate. However, Max and his escorting persona are hard to parse as individuals. In our introduction to Max, he seems savvy and in control. He looks at his client with an observant cunning that aligns with his hungry ambitions as a freelancer, preparing for an interview with author Bret Easton Ellis by obsessively listening to his past conversations. That cleverness is inconsistent across Max’s dates, as is what he’s seeking in sexual partners. He seems to prefer older men (which his publisher points out in his manuscript) but will respond positively, even passionately, to men closer to his age. Even if we grant Max his right to uncertainty beyond his desire to be a successful novelist, there are limits before it starts impacting how we connect with him.

Sebastian’s wandering ceases briefly with Nicholas (Jonathan Hyde), a retired college professor who hires Max more for companionship than sex. Nicholas’ subsequent appearance at a literary event rattles Max, suggesting that his two identities are about to violently collide. Instead, Mäkelä takes a far more intriguing route. Max finds a kindred spirit in his second session with Nicholas, with the two men bonding tentatively over their literary interests. Their intellectual compatibility adds simmering sensuality and intimacy to their first sexual encounter, unlike any Max has had before. Max finally clicks into place as a character through these sessions. We see him unwind his unconscious judgments about sex work and participate in a more emotionally, intellectually, and physically stimulating life. That labor is brutally disrupted when his publisher objects to Jonathan’s place in the novel, implicitly telling Max that mainstream audiences’ acceptance of queer authenticity and sexuality have limits.

That rejection sends Max and Sebastian into a spiral, and neither walks away unscathed. The final act resurrects Max’s earlier character inconsistencies and adds new ones, like a shocking lack of common sense and self-preservation. His journey on a date across country lines is one even the most naive and inexperienced person would advise against. Every choice Max makes is woefully wrong, and the few smart ones raise troubling questions about Max’s approach to sexual safety. While Mäkelä avoids falling into the tragic sex worker trope, he does barrel into an ending that doesn’t feel earned.

It’s a shame the film can’t be as taut as Ruaridh Mollica’s performance. While his character wavers throughout, Mollica has a firm hold of Max, conveying a hesitant but frustrated energy that belies his academic and physical bluster. Even with that feeding through his performance, he still generates excellent chemistry with every screen partner. It’s a credit to his presence and skill that he keeps the film relatively steady. Thankfully, Jonathan Hyde arrives halfway through to lighten the load. It’s only been a month, but Hyde delivers what will likely be one of the year’s best performances as Nicholas. He renders Nicholas with captivating grace and elegance in every situation, whether remembering a lost lover or in the throes of long-deserved ecstasy. It feels inadequate and even condescending to say his work is heartbreaking when you consider its profound dignity. It is, at the very least, unforgettable.

Even at its most frustrating, Sebastian is a compelling counter to a century’s worth of shallow narratives built around sex work. Mikko Mäkelä demonstrates the more dynamic aspects of the profession, leaning into inclusivity and affirmation as opposed to shame and misery. Of even greater value is how he engages sex work in discussions around authenticity, identity, and the intricate dynamics between physical and emotional intimacy. While the film would’ve benefitted from a tighter focus, it is a significant step forward in unshackling sex work from the pedantic weights of shame and misery that have plagued it for too long.

Sebastian had its World Premiere in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition section of the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.

Director: Mikko Mäkelä

Writer: Mikko Mäkelä

Rated: NR

Runtime: 110m