Lauren Garroni made her name commenting on the fashions of “Sex and the City” as one half (with Chelsea Fairless) of the genius minds behind the Every Outfit on Sex and the City Instagram account but her heart doesn’t just belong to television. She’s also a film buff who has a poster for Robert Altman’s “The Long Goodbye” on her wall — which of course means that she has her Letterboxd Top 4 answers locked and loaded. One is “The Long Goodbye.
” Another is “Cruel Intentions.” That one-two punch is telling. “ Sugar Baby ,” her feature film debut as director and co-writer (with Bree Essrig, a sugar baby who drew on her own experiences for the script), is a wily erotic thriller that plays with audience expectations as much as it presents a refreshingly candid look at sex workers.
Garroni wanted to craft a movie that, just like her favorites, would be specific while telling a broader story. ”One of the goals, I would say in the more grounded part of the film, was for sex workers to watch this film and go, ‘Oh, I’m not being talked down to. This feels relevant to my experience,” Garroni told IndieWire.
Of course, that honesty is only just the starting point. In “Sugar Baby,” Mary Beth Barrone’s Marie meets and negotiates with Jeff, a seemingly nice guy eager to pay her $30,000 to spend a week with him. Played by James Tupper with just the right mixture of breezy confidence and sleazy White Man Arrogance, he seems like a guy Marie can handle .
