Shortbus
| Year: | 2006 |
| Production Co: | Q Television |
| Director: | John Cameron Mitchell |
| Producer: | John Cameron Mitchell |
| Writer: | John Cameron Mitchell |
Take away the shock, R-rating, destroying-the-moral-fibre-of-our-kids panic of any film that depicts real sex, and just look at the movie. Does it have something to say? Is it worth watching?
In the same way sex dominates most of our thinking most of the time in one form or another, that's what this film's about - the constant battle to get it right, get enough of it, have it match what we feel in our hearts and feel like we're getting our money's worth out of the few short years we spend on this earth.
The characters - a sex therapist who's never had an orgasm, a gay couple who might not be in love any more, and the owner of the sex club that gives the film it's title and a dominatrix who doesn't know who she is - aren't caricatures but they're a cross section of all of us and our foibles, tastes, problems and hopes, straight or gay, male or female, horny or satisfied.
In some ways the plot isn't as important as the characters and their struggles, because despite a few tense and thematic notes, it's more a sympathetic day-in-the-life-of than a story.
Like most movies that generate controversy about their sexual content, you can see a lot worse on any website and the best scenes are actually those of the camera flying around a cartoony/cardboard-looking New York city as we move from one character and scene to another.
In the same way sex dominates most of our thinking most of the time in one form or another, that's what this film's about - the constant battle to get it right, get enough of it, have it match what we feel in our hearts and feel like we're getting our money's worth out of the few short years we spend on this earth.
The characters - a sex therapist who's never had an orgasm, a gay couple who might not be in love any more, and the owner of the sex club that gives the film it's title and a dominatrix who doesn't know who she is - aren't caricatures but they're a cross section of all of us and our foibles, tastes, problems and hopes, straight or gay, male or female, horny or satisfied.
In some ways the plot isn't as important as the characters and their struggles, because despite a few tense and thematic notes, it's more a sympathetic day-in-the-life-of than a story.
Like most movies that generate controversy about their sexual content, you can see a lot worse on any website and the best scenes are actually those of the camera flying around a cartoony/cardboard-looking New York city as we move from one character and scene to another.