Remarkable for taking a lurid and ludicrous storyline — a federal prosecutor and aspiring politician plunges (reluctantly) into the world of high-priced escorts, even as the FBI goes after the very service he frequents — stocking it with a solid cast — Patrick Wilson as a twitchy, tortured Paul Newman, Lena Headey as a sour, thwarted Joan Crawford, Richard Dreyfuss as a fleshy, ruined version of himself — and rendering it with such stately, coolheaded detachment. (If memory serves, much of the nudity is confined to a montage in which Wilson’s joyless rutting is intercut with scenes from his speech to school kids about being who you really are.) Zipper takes its sleaze seriously, which isn’t quite the same thing as actually caring about it. You’re shown sad things (i.e., teen whores who are just trying to help their moms pay for cancer treatments) but it’s hard to feel sad about them when the film tells you that morality is a pious myth. Directed and co-written by Mora Stephens. (2015) — Matthew Lickona
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