Movies Released August 14, 2009

Los Angeles is often the customary site for mythmaking in the American cultural iconography. It is a place, for instance, where the legend of the sexual exploits of the male gigolo seems perfectly at home in the decadent universe of Hollywood dreams and nightmares. Surely inspired by the classic tradition of American Gigolo and Shampoo, Spread is such a perfectly tuned, contemporary depiction of the trials and tribulations of sleeping your way to wealth and success that, guilty pleasure or not, it’s irresistible. Especially so since it’s driven by the iconic persona of Ashton Kutcher, who plays Nikki and breathes the charged sexuality, fashion and hipness, and sense of entitlement of the sexual grifter as if he were born to it. Stylishly directed by David MacKenzie (Hallam Foe, Young Adam), Spread is a moral tale in a very-modern sense with its characters of a young man and his middle-aged, well-to-do client (played by Anne Heche), his various associates and conquests, and a waitress whom he begins to really care about (unbeknownst to him, she is playing the same game). The world of money, sex, and privilege is an ephemeral one, and the fall can be as sudden as the ascent. Spread is a finely crafted vision of ambition, indulgence, vanity, and self-realization that epitomizes the lifestyle of a fabled Mecca.

In the war-zones of Liberia and Congo, four volunteers with Doctors Without Borders struggle to provide emergency medical care under extreme conditions. With different levels of experience, each volunteer must find their own way to face the challenges, the tough choices, and the limits of their idealism.