American Gigolo

A slick Los Angeles callboy finds love and redemption in Paul Schrader's ultra-stylish drama. High-living prostitute Julian Kay (Richard Gere, stepping in for John Travolta) has it all: the Mercedes, the clothes, access to Beverly Hills' swankiest establishments, and a stable of rich, older female ...more

In retrospect, Paul Schrader's paean to perms, pimps, and playboy peccadillos seems like the first instant of the 1980s. Even while the subject matter remains steeped in a depraved '70s milieu, Richard Gere practices the kind of casual materialism and wears the kind of pastel Miami Vice fashion that confirms the arrival of that decade. The result is a zeitgeist film balancing on a tight rope between one world of underground lairs and street hustles, and another of high-priced hotels and ...more