X
- 1980
- R
- Paramount Pictures
- 1 h 57 m
- 1980
- R
- Paramount Pictures
- 1 h 57 m
Summary A Los Angeles male escort (Richard Gere), who mostly caters to an older female clientèle, is accused of a murder he didn't commit.
Directed By: Paul Schrader
Written By: Paul Schrader
- 1980
- R
- Paramount Pictures
- 1 h 57 m
- 1980
- R
- Paramount Pictures
- 1 h 57 m
American Gigolo
57
4.0
Where to Watch
Summary A Los Angeles male escort (Richard Gere), who mostly caters to an older female clientèle, is accused of a murder he didn't commit.
Directed By: Paul Schrader
Written By: Paul Schrader
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 8 Critic Reviews
57
38% Positive
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
50% Mixed
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
13% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 8 Critic Reviews
57
38% Positive
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
50% Mixed
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
13% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
An inspired variation on his familiar theme: the whore with a heart of gold is a man. [2 Feb 1980]
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.
Abandoning the gritty realism of his first two films, BLUE COLLAR and HARDCORE, screenwriter-turned-director Schrader here adopted a sleek and stylish approach. The result was one of his most satisfying attempts to mesh a European sensibility and his own obsession with moral drift and emotional alienation.
This is basically a story about the pastime of shopping as an antidote to boredom, only the shopper has wandered into a cocktail lounge, instead of a store, and is looking for something live, or nearly so, to try on. That any human activity worth considering should ensue from this situation would be ridiculous to expect. [8 Feb 1980, p.20]
Schrader's development of the frame-up story is mechanically melodramatic, and Gere, essentially a boring actor, doesn't help much either. He just cannot carry a picture, even when his passivity and gentleness well serve some aspects of his character, as they do here.
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.
Though it tells us that it's about a man who gives pleasure for a living but is incapable of accepting pleasure, it is in fact about the guilty obsessions of a filmmaker who seems incapable of giving pleasure to an audience. [11 Feb 1980, p.82]
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 24 User Ratings
4.0
33% Positive
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
21% Mixed
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
46% Negative
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 24 User Ratings
4.0
33% Positive
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
21% Mixed
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
46% Negative
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
There are no user reviews yet. Be the first to add a review.
Awards
Golden Globes, USA
• 2 Nominations
