Episode 275 - The Rules of Attraction
Welcome back to Not A Bomb! This is the podcast where we explore some of cinema’s biggest box office failures and decide whether they deserve a second chance. We are celebrating five years of discussing cinematic flops!
Episode 275 of Not A Bomb continues Listener Request Month with Troy and Brad diving headfirst into the chaotic, nihilistic world of Roger Avary’s 2002 dark comedy The Rules of Attraction. Adapted from Bret Easton Ellis’s novel, the film follows three emotionally fractured college students—Sean Bateman (yes, Patrick Bateman’s younger brother), Lauren Hynde, and Paul Denton—as they spiral through drugs, sex, and existential dread at the fictional Camden College.
While the marketing teased a cheeky American Pie-style romp, the film delivers something far darker: a transgressive, nonlinear fever dream built on split screens, rewound timelines, and surreal montages that mirror its characters’ moral decay. Critics weren’t laughing—many recoiled at its unflinching depictions of suicide, sexual assault, and emotional numbness—but Troy and Brad dig in, unpacking both the film’s stylistic bravado and its brutal honesty about youth culture.
⚠️ Trigger warning: This episode contains discussion of heavy drug use, sexual violence, and suicide, mirroring the film’s unflinching content.
The Rules of Attraction is directed by Roger Avary and stars James Van Der Beek, Shannyn Sossamon, Kip Purdue, Jessica Biel, Ian Somerhalder, Clifton Collins, Jr., Thomas Ian Nicholas, Swoosie Kurtz, and Kaye Dunaway
To celebrate the last 25 years of film, the Not A Bomb podcast is compiling a Top 25 list from the Not A Bomb community. If you would like to submit your own list, please use this form to enter your 25 choices. For a film to be eligible, it must have been released between January 1, 2020, and December 31, 2025. Those are the only rules. Thank you for being a part of the community! Stay tuned for a special episode revealing the results in December. Head over to Not A Bomb 25 in 25 to fill out the form!
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