In the real capitalist machine, everyone is like a tight cog, more or less neurotic. The coworker sitting next to you in the company may be a voyeur, the stranger passing by on the subway may be violent, and the plain girl in the corner of the coffee shop may also enjoy making pornographic movies.
The scenery in the movie is so pale, midnight New York feels chaotic and depressing. The film is full of unpleasant sex scenes. Although this film is classified as erotic, it is better to say that this one strips all eroticism and just shows the distorted needs of the male protagonist to the audience naked.
What impressed me the most was the soundtrack of the film and the long, long, long shots. When Bach's Goldberg Variation rings, it's suddenly in play. I feel the indescribable loneliness through music. Those long subway pit stops, awkward conversations in restaurants, low-level conversations in bars...as real, boring, and stupid as life. Yet many people live in such tedious and stupid ways. Who is not like him, who, while living so lonely, still desperately wants to seek warmth? At least Brandon still has shame, so he suffers. If he is like his boss David, he can maintain a normal state of mind.
Maybe the male lead and his sister do have an incestuous past, and that would perfectly explain why their personalities are so fragmented. But that's not the point, at least I don't think that's what the director wants to interpret. Movies are like a mirror, and what the audience ultimately sees is our almost morbid way of life today.
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