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American Gigolo

1980

Paul Schrader

Richard Gere, Lauren Hutton, Hector Elizondo, Bill Duke ...

5.6

5,290

Drama. Thriller. Mystery Julian Kay (Richard Gere) makes a lucrative living as an escort to older women in the Los Angeles area. He begins a relationship with Michelle (Lauren Hutton), a local politician's wife, without expecting any pay. One of his clients is murdered and Detective Sunday (Hector Elizondo) begins pumping him for details on his different clients, something he is reluctant to do considering the nature of his work. Julian begins to suspect he's ... [+]

	Author	Review
United States	Variety	"A hot subject, cool style and overly contrived plotting don't all mesh in 'American Gigolo'. Paul Schrader's third outing as a director is betrayed by a curious, uncharacteristic evasiveness at its core."	NEU
United States	Roger Ebert rogerebert.com	"Stylish and surprisingly poignant handling of this material. (...) The whole movie has a winning sadness about it; take away the story's sensational aspects and what you have is a study in loneliness. (...) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)"	POS
United Kingdom	Geoff Andrew Time Out	"Fascinating but botched attempt to update and translate Bresson's 'Pickpocket' to contemporary California (...) An academic, if entertaining, exercise that fails to stir the emotions."	NEU
United States	Dave Kehr Chicago Reader	"The subject of this 1980 prostitution saga is grace, and it's certainly amazing (...) The drawback here is an alienating, overelaborate visual style that forestalls any involvement with the characters."	NEU
United Kingdom	John Ferguson Radio Times	"It hasn't aged well, and it now comes across as a beautifully designed but ultimately transparent walk on the wild side (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	NEU

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