Shortbus

Shortbus (2006)

--John Cameron Mitchell

So I'm taking a break from not doing reviews to do what will possibility, probably be November's only movie review. Hey, let's try to get back on that train for December, okay kids? Anyway, I just really want to review this film now and I have to say upfront that I think this film should be shown every Christmas. Along with "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington".

Um, I should probably say that the movie contains graphic, graphic depictions of not-fake sex, but I didn't really get the feeling that it was pornographic (sorry for all ya'll who think all full nudity is). And yeah, there's a lot of gay sex, which I'm fine with. Just sort of saying this as a disclaimer. Also the director of this film directed "Hedwig and the Angry Inch," one of my favourite films, so I should probably say that I'm predisposed to liking whatever else he comes up with.


The premise is that there are people in New York who aren't getting the most out of their various sexual interactions. The central, central characters (there are a lot of fun random characters too) are "the two Jamies", one who is depressed (and starts going by James), the other who used to be a child actor. They are having... intimacy issues? And considering opening up their relationship. There's a guy who lives across from these two who watches them, well mostly James, and sort of starts following him around. There's Ceth (pronounced like it would be with an "s") who is "looking for his husband". There's a married couple, one of whom doesn't really make his problems known until the end of the film (which is awk) and the other who is a sex therapist who has never had an organism--and spends the whole film trying to get to the point. Then there's Severin, who is a paid dominatrix, but who really doesn't enjoy people all that much. So, yeah, they all convene at this place called "Shortbus" for the sexually challenged and gifted. Pretty much anything goes there, it's a safe place to explore and meditate on or engage in sex. Yeah, so really they just sort of going around trying to deal with their various issues.


Most of the actors are relatively unknown in the acting world, they were apparently picked in a contest the John Cameron Mitchell had to find the cast. And I guess they were also involved in the development of their characters for this film. And I thought they all did really well. I didn't think they were going to be that good, probably because the last film I can think of where most of the cast didn't really have acting experience was "Elephant" which had some horrrrrrrrrrrrible acting. So I was pleasantly surprised that it didn't turn out like crap.


I overall liked this film. Here is something that the director says about the graphic use of real, actual sex in the film: "Mitchell says: “In the old days, when you couldn't show sex on film, directors like Hitchcock had metaphors for sex (trains going into tunnels, etc). When you can show more realistic sex, the sex itself can be a metaphor for other parts of the character's lives. The way people express themselves sexually can tell you a lot about who they are. Some people ask me, 'Couldn't you have told the same story without the explicitness?'. They don't ask whether I could've done Hedwig without the songs. Why not be allowed to use every paint in the paintbox?" Enjoy the blue links to wikipedia, cause I totally stole that quote from them. But yeah, I just want to say that I agree with that. The sex isn't for pornographic purposes and it's used to discuss real issues in the character's lives. It is a little shocking at first, but you get used to it.

I also liked the... it's hard to explain... the cute little intersections of New York city animations (it's just moving around the cityscape). I thought those were really cool. Weird at first, but nice at the end. I also enjoyed the music. Hehe, and I'm now listening to Jay Brannan who played Ceth. He's a singer-songwriter and performs one of his songs in the film. Goood. And all of the random, but not random smaller characters in the film were awesome. A lot of them actually played themselves, but I wouldn't really know that, not being involved in the New York queer scene, soooo.... But they were awesome and they definitely added awesomeness to the film.

Mostly I just liked that all of these people come together and they make a community and they have a place where they can feel comfortable with each other and able to express parts of their personality that they wouldn't necessarily be able to otherwise. Shortbus just seemed like a nice place to be with a group of really nice people. Go them! I think it might have been based off a couple of real-life places so that's really nice. Yay community! That was my favourite part. I also liked the end. It was the best ending ever. Very fit for Christmas! Haha. So, maybe ya'll won't see this, but at least you'll have some knowledge about what it's about I guess. Go forth with that knowledge.