Shortbus (2006)

Last night I went to see a screening of Shortbus; John Cameron Mitchell's follow-up to Hedwig and the Angry Inch and it was the most joyful movie experience I've had in ages. There is something audacious and exciting going on here... something that maybe hasn't been seen in American film since the 60's. Shortbus is laugh-out-loud funny and sink-in-your-seat to hide your tears sad. There's a message of 'acceptance' and 'we're all in this together' to be received... you just have to want to hear it (and that, in itself, will present a problem to a fair number of moviegoers who are just unable to let it in.) The explicit sex isn't just a gimmick... it really feels like it comes from an honest place with these characters. It's playful when it needs to be, angry at other times, sometimes it's tentative and unsure. Just like how it is in real life (as opposed to porn) which is why it works so well.

Fmovies: Shortbus reviewed by Sam Osborn

I have a bad feeling that after the first ten minutes of Shortbus are through, much of the audience will have already left; because within this first segment, sophomore director John Cameron Mitchell has the mind to show his audience the nature of this very, ahemÂ…frank work. Audiences will have witnessed filmed masturbation, wild fornication in a myriad of poses, and a scene of S&M sexual nature. These are all acts we've seen before from other Hollywood pictures; but then again, those pictures only played pretend. Shortbus requires all its actors to do such acts for real.

Is Porn too strong a word to describe such a film? It's debatable, I suppose. Films that boast actual penetration are usually not found in theatres anymore; instead hidden in the back of your video rental stores, or placed neatly on a shady internet site. But Pornography uses plot mechanisms only to drive the story into another sex scene. Shortbus has plot mechanisms to drive the arcs of its characters. That its characters all play roles indulgent in fornication is simply the nature of Shortbus' stories. But enough about the ethics of Shortubus; it's a good film. And if you're not too squeamish for the subject matter, and have a mind for tongue-in-cheek wit, then it shouldn't matter how close to porn the film means to aim.

It's a story of New Yorkers. A fringe group of New Yorkers who all meet at the underground lounge Shortbus. It's a place of casual frivolity, where people of any sexual preference are free to indulge in whatever they please. They mingle and dance and drink and have sex, all happily and without any semblance of filth or vice. These people are simply enjoying themselves and being quite hilarious while they do it. The members that we're asked to follow all come from the Magnolia school of connections, where links between characters are often coincidental and illogical, but acceptable as obligations of an ensemble drama. Sofia (Sook-Yin Lee) is a Sex Therapist who prefers to be called a Couples Councilor and who's unable to have an orgasm. She's invited to Shortbus by the club's poster child couple, Jamie and Jamie (Paul Dawson and PJ DeBoy), who assure Sofia that if there's an orgasm to be found, it's hidden within Shortbus. In a dark room there, Sofia meets Severina (Lindsay Beamish), a lonely dominatrix who gets mean when uncomfortable, and whose longest relationship was with the geeky trust fund sexual deviant.

All their stories are all human and kind of affecting, managing to dig their way out of the film's heaping shock factor to create something like empathy. It's nothing heartbreaking or particularly inspiring, but how much can we really expect from a film that has an entire scene dedicated to the National Anthem being sung into an anal orifice. But that's the charm of Shortbus, I suppose. Director/Writer John Cameron Mitchell has made a film more explicit than most pornography while keeping eroticism completely out of the equation. The film's sexuality is frank and the humor always constant, while avoiding jokes that patronize its cast of outsiders.

It's too easy to forget the poignancy of Shortbus, though. The dialogue that's sure to be shot wild by its release won't be about its humor or spirit; talk will be of the skin that was exposed in finding the better, realer bits. It's too bad, but, again, what can we expect from a film that sings the National Anthem into a man&#

I kinda like porn, I have at least five favourite actresses. The problem with porn is that it's often just too cheesy and artificial. At least that's my problem with porn.

I love watching a good drama, because it's the only genre that takes its time to make you care about the characters. There's no big problem regarding dramas, I just wish there are more good ones, with thought-provoking themes. Sex is a huge part of everyone's life, so having a life uncensored on screen, with a strong author who has something to say - now that would be a winner.

So, don't watch Shortbus. It's got nothing of the above.

It tries to shock you, it's got people whining and acting all sad, and having lots of on-screen sex. But it just doesn't involve you with the story (was there a story?) and the characters.

According to reviews, the characters were supposed to be the main thing about this film. Well, they weren't really. I suppose the author wanted to make a sex+drama project, and everything else came as an afterthought. Nothing seems convincing or natural, and around the 30th minute I started wondering "why am I watching this".

Maybe it's just me, perhaps someone who resembles the characters depicted in the movie will find it to be great wanking & crying material.

Shortbus fmovies. Brilliant directing and writing by John Cameron Mitchell (he gave us "Hedwig"), and great acting from everyone, especially Justin Bond, Lindsay Beamish, Paul Dawson and PJ Deboy. Great musical numbers too! You'll laugh and cry, and come away wanting to see it again immediately. Much has been made of a few rather intimate and well-lit sex scenes, but if anyone over 16 can't handle them, he or she shouldn't be out at night.

It's all ultimately wondrous, and one of the great revelations of the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, where the audiences tend to be snotty and conspicuously unimpressed--but the screening of this movie was followed by parades and parties in the streets, with people carrying the stars on their shoulders, like they used to do with Verdi on opening nights in Milan. Lynne Cheney, sly pornographer that she is, will be eating her heart out that someone has gotten at last to the real g-spot of the cosmos, and it wasn't she what did it.

Love may be grim at times, kind of like Kansas, but Mitchell turns it into technicolor. Just like magic.

An extremely weak excuse for a plot and even more a weak excuse for entertainment. A sex therapist can't have an orgasm. She reveals this to two of her clients who invite her to a place called "Shortbus" where all kinds of sex goes on. The sex is shown graphically, even down to the "money shots" that pornography relies on to pay the bills. The movie is incredibly sad. No one is happy and everyone is a victim. If you like sex, love or intimacy, stay away from this film. It will make you prefer taking a vow of chastity for a more entertaining lifestyle. Seriously, "Shortbus" features scene after scene of people chasing that first orgasm. There is no love, no fun, no caring, no sharing, just orgies, sex toys, masturbation and a pathetic grasping for a drug like euphoria through mindless sex. A lame excuse for a provocative study of sexual proclivities. If romance killing is your cup of tea, rent this film.

There are a couple of features about this movie that will hit you. Yes there is some rather graphic sex, but to anyone after hitting adulthood it works purely to support the film, erotic would be too strong a word for it. It is to everybody's' credit that this was possible. The model of New York works great and is a real devise for the movie.

As we progress through the film we see the lives of a small group of New Yorkers grow as they develop their relationships or indeed the quest for a relationship. The medium for bringing these lives together is the "Shortbus" club. A rather carnal club which they all drawn to becomes a focus for their development. Each confronts their own particular daemons. As heavy as this sounds, it is quite a light hearted film. The closing scenes are fantastic. As you watch this film you will feel yourself being dragged in, until the end when u feel almost as if you are part of it.

A great movie, one which should become a cult classic (only because it might be a bit too "graphic" for mainstream cinemas, but certainly a classic. Any attempt to sanitize and edit it would surely destroy the film.

This movie will make you laugh, cry and sing; you will leave the movie theatre affected by this film.