Genre: Drama
Director: Elizabeth Wood
Writer: Lon Charles
Based on a book by Bret Easton Ellis
Cast: Connie Britton, Kyle Chandler, Brady Corbet, Dane DeHaan, Blake Jenner, Logan Lerman, Jane Levy, Dora Madison Burge, Ezra Miller, Nicola Peltz, Glen Powell, Shane West, Michael Shannon
Plot: Tim (Logan Lerman) and his friends Dirk (Dane DeHaan) and Graham (Blake Jenner) gather at Mario's restaurant, where Graham recalls that it is the one-year-anniversary of the death of Jamie, a mutual acquaintance of the boys'. Emotions run high as Dirk denies remembering that it is the anniversary, ultimately breaking down and recalling Jamie's death in graphic detail: Dirk was following Jamie's car through the desert when Jamie crashed it, and Dirk pulled Jamie's body from the wreck and waited with it until help arrived. Graham becomes upset by the story and retreats to the bathroom to cry, where Tim goes to calm him down. Tim tells him that Jamie considered him a good friend, which cheers Graham up.
Laura (Connie Britton) has a dream about being pushed out the window by her much younger lover Martin (Glen Powell). She then awakens and wanders about the house in a daze of Valium. She tries to make conversation with her son and daughter, but fails as they either ignore her, or change the subject. She then eats lunch with Martin, then goes back to his apartment and has sex with him, after which she gives him a pith helmet as a gift.
Laura sits by the pool observing the pool cleaner. The pool cleaner then finds two dead rats and starts talking to Laura, who becomes flustered by the conversation. Laura then has lunch with her friends. That night Laura dreams of drowning rats and pool boys, then wakes up and has more Valium before calling Martin.
Next Laura meets with her psychiatrist so she can get her prescriptions filled. She then follows her son Graham and watches him score drugs. She then talks with Martin about how she is friends with his mother, then loans him money to pay for Billy Idol tickets.
Les Price (Kyle Chandler), Tim's father, is watching Tim and Graham stand in line for a movie through the mirrored window in his office. While he watches the two boys, he begins to see signs that the two boys he thinks are friends, may have a more physical relationship. Les gets a phone call from his ex-wife Elena, who informs him that Tim does not want to go to on the trip to Mauna Kea with him. The next day, Les picks up Tim in his limousine and, after Les makes some attempts to talk to him and fails, they go to the airport.
After Tim and his father arrive in Hawaii, they eat at the Mauna Kea restaurant and his father once again tries unsuccessfully to make conversation with Tim. Once dinner ends, they go walking around the hotel until they meet two ladies from Chicago at the bar. Les tries unsuccessfully to pick up on the two ladies, and Tim gets upset at his father's actions and leaves. They play tennis and Les wins every set, which Tim shrugs off. They go to the beach and relax in the sun, until Tim meets a girl his age, named Rachel (Jane Levy). Later that evening, Tim and his father have dinner with Rachel. Les tries to pick up Rachel during the dinner, at which point Tim freaks out and leaves. Tim's dad finds him up in their room smoking marijuana, causing him to attempt in vain to apologize. Les has been crying, possibly motivated by guilt. Les wanders around the hotel and once again meets Rachel. Les talks with her about manta rays and Tim. Tim and Les sit on the beach staring at the ocean.
Burned out rock star Bryan Metro (Shane West) travels to Japan on his world tour, where he beats up groupies, rapes hotel maids, has sex with underage girls, and engages in drug-induced acts of self-mutilation. Bryan makes unsuccessful attempts to reconcile via phone with his ex-wife and son, and meditates on the suicide of one of his former bandmates, an event left out of a well-received documentary film about the events leading to the band's dissolution. Bryan ultimately completes the tour after a disastrous show during which he forgets the words to his own songs and prepares to head back to America.
Graham lives in an apartment with his girlfriend, Christie (Nicola Peltz), and Martin, who is having an affair with Graham's mother and with whom Graham is also having sex. Graham is further convinced that Christie and Martin are having sex, but does not care.
Graham visits Martin at a building where Martin is filming a music video for the English Prices, whose stoned lead singer proves difficult to work with. Later he has lunch with Christie, who tells him that a friend of theirs has been found dead in Mexico, severely mutilated and drained of blood. The two argue about their relationship, ultimately concluding that neither cares if the other has sex with different people.
One morning Graham goes downstairs to discover that a hostage situation is unfolding across the street involving numerous police officers. Graham dismissively watches it unfold along with the doorman, Tommy (Brady Corbet), who wants to be introduced to Martin so that he can get into music videos. Graham ultimately goes back upstairs, ignoring the outcome of the hostage situation. Later, he receives word that his father has been killed in a plane crash, and travels out to Las Vegas to see the body and visit the accident site. Afterwards he gambles most of his money away at different Casinos, and ultimately loses most of his father's ashes after betting them on a game of Blackjack.
Jamie (Ezra Miller) is a sexist, racist young playboy fond of making jokes about Ethiopians. Jamie believes himself to be a vampire. He sleeps in a coffin outfitted with cable television and survives on raw filet mignon and by drinking the blood of teenage girls during sex. He is part of an apparent secret society of other "vampires," including his friend, Dirk, who has taken vampirism to the extreme by killing his victims rather than simply draining and drinking their blood.
Visiting Dirk, Jamie discovers various mutilated body parts that indicate him as a serial killer. Jamie and Dirk uncomfortably recall the fate of Roderick, who disappeared at the same time a pile of ashes were found at the bottom of his pool, near a wooden stake and Lawry's garlic powder. The next time Jamie picks up a girl he discovers that she is more perceptive to his racism and lifestyle than his other conquests, which causes him to snap and murder her.
Jamie goes to visit his psychiatrist, whom he asks for more Darvocet. Jamie then threatens to kill his psychiatrist's daughter, spurring him to write the prescription. Before leaving, Jamie claims to be the biblical demon Legion.
Tommy gets a call from an old acquaintance of his, Peter (Michael Shannon), who wants to stay at his place while he visits the city. Tommy agrees, and Peter shows up later along with his girlfriend, a heroin addict named Mary (Dora Madison Burge) who takes to sleeping on a mattress on the floor of Tommy's room. One afternoon, however, Tommy comes home to discover a ten-year-old boy tied up in the bathtub. Peter explains that he owes money to a drug dealer, and explains that the child, whom he and Mary kidnapped from the mall, is part of a plan to raise money to pay off the debt. Tommy initially protests, prompting Peter to assault him. Tommy quickly grows too apathetic to intervene, and simply takes to urinating in his kitchen sink and defecating at a nearby gas station as a way to avoid the bathroom.
As time goes on it becomes apparent that Peter has no real plan to use the child as a means of income as he never makes ransom demands from the child's parents, and only briefly considers selling him to the vampires in Los Angeles, before deciding to use the boy as his own personal sex slave. The sight of the child's bloody body after being raped by Peter only causes Tommy to become more apathetic.
One night, left alone with Mary, Tommy attempts to have sex with her. Mary tells him that the last time the couple found themselves in a similar situation, she had sex with their host, prompting Peter to shoot him in the eye and castrate him. Nevertheless, Tommy still attempts to have sex with her, an effort that fails when she passes out from heroin.
After the drug dealer shows up and threatens Tommy, Peter decides to flee to Las Vegas, and asks Tommy to come along with. Before they leave, he encourages Tommy to murder the child to tie up loose ends. Tommy initially refuses, but is too apathetic to keep up his protest, and obligingly stabs the boy to death. The trio flee into the desert, where Peter reminds Tommy that the child's death is on his hands, and not Peter's. When Tommy brings up the man that Peter shot and castrated, Peter is genuinely confused, and indicates he does not know what Tommy is talking about.
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