this film sit on my tivo for week before i watch it . i dread a self indulgent yuppie flick about relationship go bad . i be wrong while this be an engrossing excursion into the screw up libido of new yorkers . the format be the same a max ophuls la ronde and base on a play by arthur schnitzler and who be give an inspire by credit . it start from one person and a prostitute and stand on a street corner in brooklyn . she be pick up by a home contractor and who have sex with her on the hood of a car and but can not come . he refuse to pay her . when he off pee and she answer his cell phone and take a message . she run away with his key . then the story switch to the contractor and who pay a professional call on a rich and bore new york woman and who play with him until he be arouse and then she pull away . she tell him how desperate and unhappy she be while he tell her how beautiful she be and and lucky . a he be leave and she ask if he would have sex with her . she sit on top of him and bounce up and down . this time he come and the he leave . the woman and her husband throw a dinner party for their trendy friend . hubby ( robert ) be talk business and wife ( ellen ) be bore and and switch the subject to sex and and how often men and woman think about it . husband switch conversation to desert . later and after the guest leave and ellen try to entice robert into sex . robert want none of it and and put on a jazz record . ellen turn on the radio while robert turn up the music while ellen turn on the tv while robert turn on another tv . cacophony ensues . ellen go up on the roof and robert join her . ellen confess that she need to experience more men and men other than robert . robert say that he too need to experience men . we next follow robert a he visit an artist and martin and play by steve buscemi . i wish buscemi could have more role like this and where he be a sexy and smart and totally desirable guy . robert praise martin work and much more than it deserve and promise to get it into a show . martin be excite and until it turn out that robert be speak out of his groin and it be all a mating dance . robert try to kiss martin and on the lip and and martin pull back and say that he be not gay . robert assert that he not gay either and martin scoff . both admit that the artwork be bad . robert be about to leave and when martin allow robert to kiss him . they make out and and robert go down on martin . next we follow martin and a he prepare for an art show at a manhattan gallery . he be smite by the receptionist and anna and play by rosario dawson . ( i have to cut some of this review to keep it under 1000 word ) . and they make love to each other . we next follow anna and who be sit at a lunch stand . her boyfriend and nick ( adrian grenier ) and enters and bear flower . she be cold toward him while he try to figure out why . he coax out of her the information that she have have sex with someone while he be in san francisco . she coax out of him the fact that he have stay with his ex gf while in san francisco and and have sex with her . the latter revelation turn out to be a lie . the two of them make out in the luncheonette and but she decide that they must break up . nick be heartbroken . and we follow nick and who confess his trouble to an old woman who he meet on a park bench and joey ( carol kane ) . joey be sort of weird and child like and but be a good audience for nick and who need a sympathetic ear . the two of them go to coney island at night and and look at the star . nick fall under joey spell and despite the age difference between them . they go back to joey apartment and and nick gradually realize that he be about to have sex with a crazy old woman . she be on top of him and doesn not want to let him go . but he manage to escape . ( this be and by the way and the best carol kane role since she play latke wife in taxi . ) joey phone ring and and it be a man call the psychic friend network and and joey be one of the psychic friend . although she be still hurt from nick and she gradually get into her psychic shtick . the man be at his office and late at night and and want to have phone sex with her . although that be not joey business and joey go along and and coax the man to come . she want to keep talk and although the man want to get off the phone and and find out that he have embezzle a lot of money from his company and and will be find out tomorrow . his life be ruin . joey realize that the man be go to commit suicide and and she try to make him believe that she be his friend and that she care about him . and she do care about him . but the man pack a gun into his briefcase and and go off to seek a prostitute on the brooklyn waterfront and and we come back to the beginning and to the same prostitute who start out la ronde . she want to give him $ 75 and 000 in cash if she will kill him . he try to kill himself and but couldn not do it . the prostitute do not want to do it and but he insist and hold her hand and hold the gun inside his mouth and tell her where to aim . eventually and the gun go off and and we see the prostitute walk down the street and and arrive at the corner where she normally do business . the contractor who do not pay her early in the movie drive up and roll down the window . they look at each other . the end .