Writer-director-producer Dylan Kidd's first feature is a quintessential New York indie, as redolent of the Big Apple's vibe as Checker cabs and two-olive martinis in a smoky club. And like the city, Campbell Scott's sex-obsessed Roger (nicknamed Roger Dodger as a child for his ability to talk his way out of any trouble) is brash, arrogant, very smart and cynical as hell. That he is also a self-obsessed infantile misogynist probably has less to do with the city than with Kidd's half-formed sensibility.

"Sex is everywhere" is the film's tagline and this very talky dramatic comedy makes that plain with Scott's opening monologue, a smart and, yes, cynical disquisition on the eventual demise of male sexual "utility." Roger and his fellow advertising executives, including his boss Joyce (Isabella Rossellini), are quaffing post-work cocktails while he holds court, and it soon becomes obvious that his performance is aimed directly at Joyce. The next scene tells us why: they are sleeping together.

At least they WERE sleeping together, because Joyce dumps Roger that night, which does not sit at all well with the egomaniacal stud. That this veteran sexual warrior would make the neophyte's mistake of sleeping with his boss and then actually getting upset when she tosses him aside doesn't make any sense at all, but let's overlook that for now.

The still-steamed Roger is surprised to find his 16-year-old nephew Nick (Jesse Eisenberg) waiting for him at work the next day. Nick, ostensibly in town to interview for a position at NYU, knows that Roger is a "ladies' man" and has looked him up to learn the ropes, as it were, of the ladykiller trade. Initially put out by the inconvenience, Roger warms to the task and takes Nick on a nighttime odyssey of New York bars and clubs, explaining his philosophy to the eager lad along the way and setting him up to score numerous times.

Roger Dodger is an actor's film and Scott is mesmerizing as the cad who‹in one of the film's more refreshing aspects‹does not spare himself from the withering (if reductive) sexual critiques he offers unbidden to pretty well everyone he meets. Eisenberg combines the appeal of the classic innocent with a sweetness that serves as a perfect counterpoint to Scott's cynicism. Nick's scenes with Jennifer Beals and Elizabeth Berkley's (both of whom are also superb) party girls‹aside from being every repressed teenage boy's wet dream‹put the lie to Roger's philosophy: most times honesty and openness win out over the cynical approach. At least they do if what you are looking for is more than just sex.

Kidd's script, while sometimes a tad too contrived and early Neil Labute-like in its misogynistic aspects, demonstrates a rare overall intelligence - it is by turns very funny, imaginative, maddeningly reductive, angry, but never boring. It's not hard to see why all the actors jumped at the chance to work with Kidd's words despite Roger Dodger's low budget.