TIFF Teaser: Sleeping Beauty, a tale of a college student making her way as a niche sex worker

Julia Leigh’s Sleeping Beauty is impressively shot, with long takes and even longer silences that, we assume, will make audiences feel anxious and uncomfortable. After all, viewers are witnessing Lucy’s (played by Emily Browning) very slow transformation from college student to waitress who works in lingerie to full-on high-end prostitute. Rachael Blake plays the madam, Clara, who says Lucy is beautiful, but could be “even more beautiful” and is responsible for arranging her staff as naked art pieces in rooms with well-to-do men. We don’t want to make big claims, but we’re almost certain it will be better than Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut (there will at least be more dialogue).