|
Shortbus
John Cameron Mitchell
USA | 2006 | 102mins | 35mm | Colour
This hedonistic tragi-comedy, explores the lives of several emotionally-challenged characters as they navigate the comic and tragic intersections between love and sex in and around a modern-day underground salon. A sex therapist who has never had an orgasm, a dominatrix who is unable to connect, a gay couple who are deciding whether to open up their relationship, and the people who weave in and out of their lives, all converge on a weekly gathering called Shortbus, a mad nexus of art, music, politics and polysexual carnality. This is a truly libertarian enclave, where one can participate in an orgy, sing or just discuss feelings.
With an irresistibly cool soundtrack, the camera swoops and sweeps through New York where the conundrum at the heart of the film lies: why modern urbanites cannot open up emotionally even when physical barriers are broken down.
In a post-9/11, Bush-exhausted New York City, Shortbus tells its story with sexual frankness, suggesting new ways to reconcile
questions of the mind, pleasures of the flesh and imperatives of the heart. |
|
