Rules of Attraction (5)
Roger Avary's film is nasty, superficial, populated by monsters and generally for the birds.
This despite some clever moments, and some smart direction that too often descends into gimmickry.
Based on Bret Easton Ellis's follow-up novel to her much more impressive American Psycho, Rules of Attraction poses as a critique of America's greedy, materialistic society in the 1980s.
But the characters are so unpleasantly one-dimensional that, far from posing critical questions, the movie is effectively a circus of grotesques.
The tone is set early on when a girl loses her virginity during an "end of the world" party on a New England university campus.
Taking the woman from behind, the rapist manages to vomit all over his victim as the "cinema verité" camera of a student film-maker rolls in the background.
Director Avary seems much more intent on voyeuristically extracting maximum impact from such scenes, than in trying to provide a context enabling us to understand where these people are coming from.
The mantra that serves as the movie's theme is that nobody can know anybody else, and that people better not try.
Slick, sure, but it's the sort of sound-bite philosophy that is typical fare for the spoilt, self-absorbed brats in this film.
The main character is Sean, the brother of Patrick Bateman, the "star" of American Psycho. Well played by James van der Beek, Sean earns his bread by selling cocaine, though he courts serious trouble by short-changing the local dealer.
He briefly emerges from his life of drugs, booze and birds when he falls in love with Lauren (Shannyn Sossamon), little realising that another girl, who has been sending him love notes, is pining for him in less-than-glorious isolation.
The film's best scene involves a gay son (Jay Baruchel having a lot of fun) misbehaving outrageously in front of his mum and her friend (played by Swoosie Kurz and Faye Dunaway respectively) at a posh restaurant. At least here the film suggests that pill-popping mums may partly be responsible for the antics of their teenagers.
Rules of Attraction may be cleverly made, using split screens and film reversal to make ironic points, but it has no heart, no real intelligence and its characters are largely despicable. No getting of wisdom here.