From the pen and lens of John Cameron Mitchell ("Hedwig and the Angry Inch") comes a curiously humane and beautiful film about people seeking to reclaim sex as LOVE; who don't just want sex, but want to enjoy sex with someone who matters to them. We see sex in all its subtleties and frustrations and sadnesses as well as its joys, pleasures, quirks, and its fundamental importance to human beings.
For a warm and funny ode to sexual liberation, it wouldn't make sense that a film celebrating the freedom for consenting adults to say "yes" would say "no" to showing it, so if you are even remotely prudish about sex (particularly gay sex) this film is not for you! The sex is explicit, almost constant, and is not simulated/acted: it's real, though with a healthy dose of camp-factor. However, Shortbus is a film ABOUT sex: the sex isn't crude pornography, and it's not meant to titillate; it isn't a spurious extra tagged on to a lame bit of cinema to spice it up, unlike the grauitous softcore of the Hollywood package-film. Surprisingly, the 'free love' ethic didn't feel dated, but rather a gauntlet-challenge to the commercialisation of sex and belittling of attractive women that so pervades our modern culture. Sex can be equal, positive, meaningful, committed. The family values thing and the marriage thing are excluded, of course
The plot follows the intertwining stories of people in various states of broken-ness in themselves and in their relationships in post 9/11 New York. Their stories intertwine around a club called Shortbus, a mad non-stop orgification of art, music, politics and polysexual carnality. It's 'Cabaret' with the pre-AIDS 80s party scene, arguing for a carnal innocence against Bush's "original sin". There's a genuine joie-de-vivre and exuberance that culminates in a final song which will stay with you for a long time.
Take your partner, have a glass of wine, and celebrate love and sex in all their complexity and warmth with this stylish, feelgood film with a truly cool soundtrack.
For a warm and funny ode to sexual liberation, it wouldn't make sense that a film celebrating the freedom for consenting adults to say "yes" would say "no" to showing it, so if you are even remotely prudish about sex (particularly gay sex) this film is not for you! The sex is explicit, almost constant, and is not simulated/acted: it's real, though with a healthy dose of camp-factor. However, Shortbus is a film ABOUT sex: the sex isn't crude pornography, and it's not meant to titillate; it isn't a spurious extra tagged on to a lame bit of cinema to spice it up, unlike the grauitous softcore of the Hollywood package-film. Surprisingly, the 'free love' ethic didn't feel dated, but rather a gauntlet-challenge to the commercialisation of sex and belittling of attractive women that so pervades our modern culture. Sex can be equal, positive, meaningful, committed. The family values thing and the marriage thing are excluded, of course
The plot follows the intertwining stories of people in various states of broken-ness in themselves and in their relationships in post 9/11 New York. Their stories intertwine around a club called Shortbus, a mad non-stop orgification of art, music, politics and polysexual carnality. It's 'Cabaret' with the pre-AIDS 80s party scene, arguing for a carnal innocence against Bush's "original sin". There's a genuine joie-de-vivre and exuberance that culminates in a final song which will stay with you for a long time.
Take your partner, have a glass of wine, and celebrate love and sex in all their complexity and warmth with this stylish, feelgood film with a truly cool soundtrack.