‘Body’ a Raw, Insightful Portrait of Hedonists

“Body Shots” offers the lurid tale of a night out gone drastically wrong. It’s set in a trendy slice of L.A and features lots of sex, miles of raw dialogue and an ensemble cast of eight attractive and talented young actors. What may come as a surprise is where “American History X” writer David McKenna and director Michael Cristofer, the Pulitzer- and Tony Award-winning playwright and screenwriter, take us.

Ultra-stylish, “Body Shots” opens with Sean Patrick Flanery’s Rick and Amanda Peet’s Jane in a bed, so wasted from heavy drinking they really are not sure what they have or haven’t done, unsure even of each other’s names, with Rick at first uncertain whether they’re in Jane’s bed or his own. All of a sudden Jane’s roommate, Sara (Tara Reid), staggers in, bedraggled and bleeding and in a state of hysteria.

Before Sara can capture our attention fully, the filmmakers flash back to introduce us to all eight of the 20-somethings who converge one evening at a large club, clearly the venue du jour and jam-packed with people, all under 30. As we meet these young men and women, most of whom are securely positioned on the corporate ladder, they all address us on the only topic that seems to concern them: sex.

They discuss it crassly, clinically, endlessly. They seem to possess scant individuality, and you soon get the feeling that they live such insulated lives that they don’t really have to think about anything but sex.

This is just how the film’s makers want us to feel about their people, because when they get back to Sara and what may--or may not--have happened to her, it leaves her friends and acquaintances so shaken that they gradually become individuals to whom we start paying attention.

What is most disturbing and pervasive about this group portrait is its collective compulsion to numb feelings with such large quantities of alcohol that it becomes impossible for anyone to remember exactly what happens, good or bad. You’re given the feeling that this boozy rite of passage, familiar to so many generations, has grown only more extreme, more common and more dangerous than ever.

The “Body Shots”’ cast delivers well. Rick and Jane emerge as more intelligent and mature than the others. But before moving back to them, the focus shifts to Sara, a pretty blond determined to get drunk quicker and more thoroughly than any one else, and Jerry O’Connell’s Michael, an imposing and fearless ex-football star used to having women throw themselves at him--and also used to assuming that they could be interested only in his body rather than his mind.

In more subsidiary roles are Brad Rowe as Shawn, who would like to think that he needs to get to know a woman before making any moves toward her--until he comes across Sybil Temchen’s sex-starved Emma. Shawn’s roommate Trent (Ron Livingston, star of the hilarious “Office Space”) is the group’s smart mouth, and Emily Procter’s Whitney is a statuesque blond who’s into kinky games of bondage and domination.

Structure is everything in making “Body Shots” play as well as it does. Its constant shifts between past and present and between individual stories creates varying perspectives that add dimension and insight to material that might play tritely if presented in straightforward narrative form. This approach is key to creating empathy, to making us aware that even the coarsest types might, in different contexts, prove to have something going for them. “Body Shots” is too shrewd to ask us to like these people much and, instead, opts to leave us feeling that the lonely crowd seems to be getting lonelier than ever.

* MPAA rating: R, for language and sexuality. Times guidelines: The language and sexuality are pretty strong, and there’s a brutal fight scene.

‘Body Shots’

Sean Patrick Flanery: Rick

Jerry O’Connell: Michael

Amanda Peet: Jane

Tara Reid: Sara

Ron Livingston: Trent

Emily Procter: Whitney

Brad Rowe: Shawn

Sybil Temchen: Emma

A New Line Cinema presentation. Director Michael Cristofer. Producer Harry Colomby. Executive producer Michael Keaton. Executive producers Guy Riedel, Michael De Luca, Lynn Harris. Screenplay by David McKenna. Cinematographer Rodrigo Garcia. Editor Eric Sears. Music Mark Isham. Costumes Carolyn Leigh Greco. Production designer David J. Bomba. Set designer Daniel Bradford. Art director John R. Jensen. Set decorator Kathy Lucas. Running time: 1 hour, 42 minutes.

In general release.