Matt Shea
RubySoho
Morgan Bell
Cibbuano
David O'Connell
Mountain Fog
Shortbus
November 2nd 2006 21:37
Shortbus opens quickly, with the first scene showing a man filming his own penis in a bathtub, then filming himself sucking his own cock.
Soon after, we're treated to a variety of graphic sex scenes and it becomes clear that this is real sex on film, actual penises in vaginas. At first, the mood in the theatre is one of uneasy disquiet... though we've all anticipated the unsimulated sex, it's still a little unsettling to see it. After all, we've grown up in period of history where sex has become one of the last violent battlegrounds.
After enough fucking - and that's what it is, no glory, no eros - the audience becomes desensitized to it, and I begin to fall into the story of Shortbus, which examines the complicated, chaotic lives of young adults living in New York City.
I can hear the critics now: 'Sex is special, we should treasure it, we should revere it..."
I think what Shortbus tries to accomplish, and, really, what it accomplishes so eerily well, is that sex is a natural function of being alive, and by demystifying it, we can peel back the skin-deep layers, and see that people are pretty much all the same inside, anyway, regardless of who you want to fuck.
And, damn, is there a lot of fucking. Straight fucking. Gay fucking. Transgender fucking, interracial fucking, BBW fucking, fucking fucking fucking. It's not pretty, and it's certainly not pornographic. Pornography is meant to titillate, and Shortbus is far from titillation. I didn't feel like fucking any of the people in this film, but I envied them their sexual liberation.
In fact, it felt pretty damn boring to be a heterosexual male. Uh, truthfully, the gay men in this movie are much more attractive than the straight women...
The character portraits drawn by director John Cameron Mitchell are vivid and fascinating to watch, like a bicycle crashing into a busy intersection in slow motion. Sometimes, you feel irritated by the people in the film, but real life people irritate the hell outta me, too. And irritating people struggle to find meaning in life, even if that meaning is to smack your lips loudly as you eat, you freak.
Though the film is uproariously hilarious - if you're able to laugh at a hardcore gay threesome where one guy sings the American national anthem up another guy's ass - Shortbus carries a tragic, melancholy air. After all, the film is about struggle, and we watch the main characters struggle to find their place in a world where everyone else is happily fucking... well, surely many of us can relate?
With a fitting, stirring soundtrack, and a cinematographic flair, Shortbus is a real movie behind the media outrage of unsimulated sex. While many people will be unable to deal with the fucking and the gay sex and the orgies and the nudity and the penises and the masturbation, those that can push aside the brambles to stand on the soft riverbank below will be treated to a sincere, touching story.
I'm keen to see Shortbus again... if nothing else, to see how vulnerable the actors become when having real sex on screen. It's a glimpse into a real person.
I say: See it, but only if you can handle it. And if you can't handle it, I think you should ask yourself why...
See it for: I never felt aroused at any part of this movie, and I suppose that's because erotica and pornography have distorted our image of what sex can be. It's relieving to see real sex, actually.
Special Canadian content: One of the main characters, a sex therapist who's never had an orgasm, is played by notable Canadian media darling, Sook-Yin Lee.
She nearly lost her job with the CBC over the controversy surrounding the film, but the public and several celebrities championed her case, and the CBC accepted her back. She gets really fucked, and masturbates a lot. And she has a real orgasm on screen.
Read an interview with her!
* this image is from IMDB
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Comment by Shani
And as if movies really put in unsimulated sex for some sort of obtuse philosophical reason, like to challenge the dominant hegemonic ideologies that opress us, etc.
Seriously, they're probably just trying to be edgy, cool and controversial. Every couple of years one of these movies comes out and every one makes such a fuss "...ooooh real penetration, how cutting edge!..." and then they forget about it until the next one comes out.
Comment by Cibbuano
Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak
Sure, you're probably right that the filmmakers wanted to be edgy, but it's just another boundary to push, like showing nudity in films.
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Shortbus
Easily better than those other real sex films of late (9 Songs, Romance, Anatomy of Hell)
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Comment by Cibbuano
Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak
that dark-haired woman had potential, but I didn't see her shaking her thang long enough to draw a conclusion!
Comment by Adrian
Philosophy Blog
I have to say I didn't like the film very much. For instance, why did the main gay character achieve happiness in the end? Because he got anal sex from his stalker? Why exactly did the therapist achieve an orgasm?
I guess I didn't really get it...