I found there to be something pruriently distasteful about this look at the modelling industry. Perhaps that was Nicolas Winding Refn s intention as he introduces us to sixteen year old aspirational model Jesse (Elle Fanning). Her arrival in Los Angeles sees her land on her feet to a certain extent as photographer Dean (Karl Glusman) takes some photographs for circulation. They date, after a fashion, and as she lives from her grotty hotel room under the guise of seedy landlord Hank (Keanu Reeves) she gradually spreads her wings before alighting on the star-maker Jack (Desmond Harrington) who sees something in her appearance that escapes a few of her older and more experienced rivals - like Sarah (Abby Lee). It turns out that Dean is actually quite a decent lad, and when he sees the choices she is making in her determination to climb the greasy pole decides to take a back seat. Now, the increasingly faux-confident young woman finds herself immersed in a culture that is as dog-eat-dog as it is glamorous, and it s going to test her mettle and her judgement if she is to emerge anywhere near unscathed from a series of toxic, borderline horrific, scenarios. I must admit that I found there something oddly sterile about this film. I felt as if I was observing something exploitative, certainly, but also something in which all the characters - regardless of their maturity - were just as complicit in the duplicity and treachery that is only really bucked by the lesbian make-up artist Ruby (Jena Malone) who has somehow managed to keep some semblance of a sane head on her shoulders and who attempts to provide some sort of anchor for a Jesse who is struggling to identify, let alone assert, her true self. I thought Fanning s performance reminded me a little of Nastassia Kinski s from Paris, Texas (1984) but without the potency and with a surfeit of dialogue and paucity of activity here, I just wasn t emotionally moved at all.