As of Fall 2024, nearly all of Bret Easton Ellis’ novels have been made into films. His 2022 work The Shards is set to be turned into an HBO series (and for the record, while Less Than Zero remains my favourite book by Ellis, I think The Shards is his most accomplished). While Ellis wrote the screenplay for the 2008 adaptation of his book The Informers, 2013’s The Canyons marked his first original work for film.

The Canyons’ gestation was an interesting one, as much of its funding was crowdsourced via Kickstarter at a time when the approach was new and maybe even a little frowned upon. However, with writer/director Paul Schrader (American Gigolo, Cat People) as part of the project, The Canyons raised $159,000 for a film with an overall budget of $250,000. Clearly, there was interest in the Ellis/Schrader combination.

The film received even more notice when Lindsay Lohan signed on to play the lead role of Tara. Lohan was at a transitional point in her career, pursuing adult roles off the back of her mainstream, teen-friendly films; at the same time, her personal life and struggles were overshadowing her acting. Taking on a decidedly risqué role with nudity in a low-budget, almost DIY film was a bold decision.

Lohan’s co-star was an even bolder and far riskier choice. James Deen was a successful porn actor, with looks closer to that of Christian Bale than Ron Jeremy. Bret Easton Ellis had Deen in mind when writing the character of Christian, the trust-fund bad boy and film producer who is also Tara’s obsessive boyfriend. Though director Schrader was initially reluctant to hire the porn actor, the casting wound up being on point.

The Canyons is definitely the singular work of Bret Easton Ellis, as it deals with many of the tropes found in his novels, including sex, obsession, distrust, ennui, and narcism. The story, classified as a thriller, centres on the deteriorating relationship between Tara, a former aspiring actress who has kept aspects of her romantic past from Christian. Living in his stylish home overlooking the titular canyons, the duo invite others into their relationship to fuck. Christian likes to watch and participate, but when he begins to suspect that Tara may be seeing someone else outside of their bedroom on the side, his possessive nature takes hold.

At the time of its release in 2013, The Canyons was savaged by critics and ignored by audiences. It was only released in two theaters alongside its appearance on VOD, making it initially difficult to find for an audience that may have actually been interested in it. However, time has been extremely kind to The Canyons, and perhaps the original hate towards it was due less with the film itself and more with its creation and creators.

Both Lindsay Lohan and James Deen do fine work as the film’s leads. They have a natural yet also uncomfortable chemistry between them. Deen in particular feels like the embodiment of an Ellis character from any one of his novels, seemingly disaffected but with a rage brimming just underneath his surface. Deen may have had a real acting career ahead of him, if not for the multiple accusations of rape that came out against him beginning in 2015.

The Canyons is Lindsay Lohan’s film, though, and she carries it extremely well. Tara is a wealth of emotions, one moment exuding a confident sexuality and then displaying emotional vulnerability the next. She is unquestionably the best actor in the film, and delivers its strongest performance.

It’s worth noting that, unlike so many films that have come out in the past decade since its release, The Canyons is incredibly sexy. The four-way scene between Tara, Christian and two swingers is hotter than anything I’ve seen in a mainstream film, titillating and refreshing at the same time. Like the sex described in a Bret Easton Ellis novel, The Canyons pulls no punches; it even includes unsimulated male masturbation that had to be cut from the iTunes release, but that’s included on streaming services.

The film’s Los Angeles setting is also prime Bret Easton Ellis, but the way it’s delivered in The Canyons is an interesting contrast to Less Than Zero. In the latter, the city is part of the scenery, but there’s never any real distinct L.A. locations on display. The characters visit clubs and restaurants and hotels, but they’re all anonymous. In The Canyons, director Paul Schrader makes a point of highlighting many of its locations; the film’s opening six minutes, where we’re introduced to our lead characters, were shot after hours at the famed Chateau Marmont; Tara and Christian’s assistant Gina (Amanda Brooks) have a tense meeting at Cafe Med, with its Sunset Boulevard street sign well on display; while the legendary Amoeba Records, one of the greatest music shops in the world, is the site of a confrontation between Ryan (Nolan Funk) and a man Christian has hired to follow him.

Though the character of the city is well on display, during the opening credits of The Canyons Schrader also serves up less identifiable shots of empty streets and abandoned buildings, physical manifestations of the loneliness we’ll encounter with our lead characters. They’re young and beautiful, all of them, but they’re also as empty inside as those deserted streets and buildings.

Maligned at the time, The Canyons seems to have gotten better with age, and looks like a million bucks, even if it cost significantly less than that.