"Is it your mission in life to humiliate yourself?" anti-hero Roger is asked by his boss and ex-girlfriend Joyce. "No," he replies, "It's mostly a hobby."

Roger's latest social gaffe is to gate-crash the party of advertising executive Joyce (Rossellini) - to which he wasn't invited - with his 16-year-old nephew in tow.

They are half-way through an evening whose sole aim is (with Roger's wise counsel) losing the virginity of Nick (Eisenberg) - they're in the Big Apple to lose his cherry.

Earlier, they hit on two girls-about-town, Andrea (Elizabeth Berkley) and Sophie (Jennifer Beals) who warm to the youngster but freeze out Roger.

"I thought you said you succeeded every night," Nick challenges his uncle. "I say a lot of things."

Kidd's big-screen debut - which he also wrote - is a dry torrent of one-liners and bon mots from the copywriter with an opinion on everything.

"Your personality," he tells one bright young thing at the bar, "could be a collection of Vanity Fair articles."

When his ego is dented (as with Andrea and Sophie), he simply panel-beats it out and continues his trawl down the Upper East Side.

However, Kidd, realising he could have created a wise-cracking cliche, twigs that there has to be some sort of moral endgame and engineers a scenario even Roger wishes to dodge.

Scott produces a tour-de-force as the lothario who shoots from the lip while Eisenberg convinces as the virginal teen.

Low-budget it may be but this contains some priceless quips and a pace and flow that leaves you breathless. Dodge it at you peril.

Tim Evans