Review: In 'Sebastian,' A Young Queer Writer Searches for His Authentic Self

In his second feature film, Finnish-British writer-director Mikko Mäkelä, who also made the queer romance "A Moment in the Reeds," takes one of gay cinema's most well-worn tropes – the rent boy looking for something more than transactional sex – and finds fresh things to show us about the genre.

For starters, Max (Ruaridh Mollica) – the talented young Scottish writer at the film's center – already has things going on in his life. He's not simply aimless, or resorting to sex work as a means of survival. He's one of Britain's buzzy authors, with his short stories appearing in anthologies and magazines while he writes reviews and does interviews for an online publication.

Even though he's only in his mid-20s, the ambitious Max feels a pressure of time. Looking to move beyond short fiction and write a novel, he invents a new persona – Sebastian – in order to research the life of a sex worker and then commit his adventures to paper in what amounts to a roman à clef.

This leads to various tensions and complications, with clients contacting him via an escort app – "Dreamy Boys" – for dates, last-minute hookups, and even glamorous weekend jaunts while Max struggles to balance his friendships, work obligations, and professional networking opportunities with his deeply DL "research" as Sebastian.

The film has the wherewithal and smarts to reflect on itself, with Max's meetings with his editor anticipating and addressing the audience's questions and critiques. What? Another rent boy novel? That's one of the first conversations we see Max and his editor have, but others soon follow. Aren't Sebastian's string of encounters with older men getting a little stale after a few repetitions? Can't he find something more dramatic or stakes-raising to do? In fact, after having this chat, Max stumbles into a situation in which he's unwittingly been hired to entertain the guests at an orgy.

And this whole mid-story diversion into a friendship with a lonely retiree? Sure, it might transform into a love story, but isn't that departing from the novel's original intentions? Perhaps, but Nick – called "Jonathan" in Max's manuscript – is a lovely character, and played with immense sympathy by Jonathan Hyde. The moment Max starts genuinely feeling for him is exquisitely directed and played, and you end up believing in it.

The film doesn't shy away from explicit situations, but Mäkelä isn't interested in presenting us with prurient material. The plot feels rigorous as well as playful, the performances are well-tuned, and what might have been a tiresome movie built out of the narrative scraps of other films feels integral and new.

Max's journey is the classic coming-of-age story: He has to sort through identities, face demons inside and out (one of the external monsters is a client, played by Ingvar Sigurdsson, who suddenly turns abusive and dangerous), and find his way toward authenticity in his life as well as his work. What Max finds in his quest for fiction are deeper truths, and that's a timeless tale no matter what genre it's set in.

"Sebastian" opens in theaters Aug. 2.