Paul Schrader directs Richard Gere, Bill Duke and Lauren Hutton in this neo-noir where a high end sex worker finds himself tangled up in a murder and potential political conspiracy.

Surprisingly sexually fluid and unnervingly threatening. Schrader’s take on this elite world shares a lot of its DNA with Brett Easton Ellis’ writing; the air of impending violence, the spartan excess of the lifestyles and the hollowness of the interactions. The mystery thriller elements begin to clunk in the home stretch, it is not a narrative with a satisfying, graceful dismount. As a mood piece from a forgotten time and place this has aged better than it was received.

7