Adapted from John Lahr’s 1978 biography of Joe Orton, this chilling and graphic portrayal of the life and death of the enfant terrible of British theatre is a masterful tribute to a man who fearlessly attacked English restrictive morals and customs. Gary Oldman is eerily transformed into Orton, a hugely talented, defiantly gay writer who seduced all with his easy going charm and mischievous grin, and who gained fame almost overnight with his outrageous and viciously funny social comedies. Alfred Molina co-stars as Kenneth Halliwell, Orton’s tormented lover, sometime collaborator and eventual murderer. What the film does not flinch from depicting is Orton’s acknowledged partiality for cottage sex.