Sebastian (2024)

A young writer dives into the world of sex work for content for his debut novel: soon the lines between research and reality become blurred in writer-director Mikko Mäkelä’s Sebastian.

All in the name of research

Sebastian
4.0 out of 5.0 stars

CAUTION: Here be spoilers

Max (Ruaridh Mollica, Tell It to The Boss) is Sebastian. 25-year-old Max is working on his debut novel about sex work in London and is getting first hand research by covertly working as an escort named Sebastian.

Sebastian’s clients are usually older men, and after each encounter he thinks back over the experience and adds it into the draft of his book.

With a day job at a magazine, where he is assigned an interview with Bret Easton Ellis, he does not want to get stuck writing short stories and reviewing other people’s work.

Receiving good feedback on his pages, including from colleague Amna (Hiftu Quasem, Something in the Water), Max is asked if he has spoken to real prostitutes in his research.

Angling the novel as a look at sex work in the digital age with the marketing and professionalism involved, his publisher Dionne (Leanne Best, Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens) suggests writing in first person and requests more variety in Sebastian’s clients and encounters.

Soon Max begins to struggle with where Max ends and Sebastian begins; he pulls on a night out but receiving a request for Sebastian follows that instead.

Meeting a younger client, he is surprised to find it is a group session and wants to leave before realising it would be good content. After a drug-fuelled night, he misses an important meeting at the magazine and loses the Easton Ellis interview.

Client Nicholas (Jonathan Hyde, Titanic) is a nervous intellectual who wants to get to know Sebastian. Bored and impatient, Max tries to get things moving but Nicholas is resistant.

Soon after Max sees Nicholas at a literary party, after his publisher has introduced him to two influential people, and in his panic, he rushes out and deletes his escort account.

His mother (Stella Gonet, Spencer) while proud of his writing is worried and asks if his writing has to be so personal: “You can keep some things for yourself”.

After losing his job at the magazine, Max re-starts the escort account and is surprised to hear from Nicholas. Over multiple meetings, they form a bond and Max asks to stay over, for him and not for Sebastian.

At an Evening Standard photoshoot for rising writers, he is asked about his social media presence and told his face will be everywhere, which adds to the growing tension of whether his work as Sebastian will be discovered.

Unwisely he agrees to go to Brussels with previous client Daniel (Ingvar Sigurdsson, The Northman). After too much wine, Max resists, resulting in Daniel reminding him who is paying before they have sex.

The following morning Daniel finds Max’s laptop and sees what he has written about the encounter. Enraged Daniel throws him out without his laptop, wallet and without anywhere to stay.

Max resorts to calling Nicholas who comes to his rescue and gets him home. Showing him the draft, unexpectedly Nicholas wants him to publish it and would be proud to be an inspiration. A clever and pleasing ending follows.

An engrossing drama, with thriller components under the surface, there is an anxious wait for Max to be discovered as Sebastian or for something to go wrong, as it does in Brussels. It could be a little tighter and leaner, the pacing slows down slightly at around the halfway mark,

Mollica (giving a BIFA-nominated performance) is a compelling lead as Max/Sebastian and is well-supported by a strong supporting cast.

As well as an insight into modern sex work Sebastian is an exploration into the dangers of getting too deep into an idea until it is almost too late.

After 2017’s A Moment in the Reeds, Sebastian is another excellent gay-themed story from writer-director Mäkelä.