Writer-director Mikko Mkel and actor Ruaridh Mollica dont mind if audiences seek out their new movie, Sebastian, for its abundance of steamy love scenes so long as those folks are willing to engage with the films coming-of-age story, too.

Sebastian, which hit theaters Friday after being screened at the Provincetown Film Festival in Massachusetts and the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, follows Max (played by Mollica), a 25-year-old journalist at a hip London publication who is enjoying a streak of professional success. After lining up a dream interview with American Psycho author Bret Easton Ellis , Max is ready for his next big project: a novel set in the underworld of queer sex workers.

When a publisher suggests that the book would work better as a first-person narrative, Max takes the plunge into sex work firsthand and moonlights as Sebastian, an escort on a gay hookup app.