Shortbus is a remarkable movie — and not just because it puts explicit sex (gay threesome, orgies, and so on) in a dramatic context. That’s an achievement in itself, pushing the boundaries like Last Tango in Paris and In the Realm of the Senses did in the 1970s and Nine Songs and The Brown Bunny (both also excellent) did more recently.
What’s amazing about the film is especially apparent when it is compared with the movies I’ve just mentioned: it’s a feelgood movie about people and their sex lives. All the other films end on at least a downbeat note; in the case of the 1970s movies with death. It seems bizarre that it has taken a century of movie-making to get us to this point — a film that is (visually) honest and open about sex, prepared to depict it clearly and without either coy Hollywood gloss or mechanical pornographic convention, to place it meaningfully in the characters’ lives, and on top of that to give it all a positive spin! It’s even willing to make sex funny, which is surely a sign of its seriousness as a film.
For those unaware (as I was) of what a “shortbus” is, it’s the smaller of the two buses provided for American schoolchildren; the “shortbus” the one for the “special needs” kids. In John Cameron Mitchell’s movie, the sex club of the title is named for that bus. There, characters such as the gay couple wondering about additional sexual partners and the “pre-orgasmic” sex therapist go to work out their issues.
A provocative delight, and worth having on DVD, even if only to lend to those friends who felt too embarrassed to go and see it in a cinema. It’s a pity the special features offered on the American version, such as a director interview, are mostly absent here; all we get is a series of deleted scenes, though these are interesting enough, especially the orgy outtakes.
Also read De Waal’s Thought Leader blog entry on DVDs in South Africa
ALSO OUT
The Night Listener
Continuing to build his serious-actor oeuvre, Robin Williams plays a radio personality beguiled by the mysterious youth whose memoir reveals a childhood of horrible abuse. Based on the novel by Armistead Maupin, who had a similar real-life experience; there is still doubt and controversy about the young memoirist. Perhaps the movie could have taken it a bit further, but as it stands it is a compelling, haunting tale, with fine acting work from Williams and co-star Toni Collette.
Grimm Love
This is a fictionalised account of the story of the German man who advertised for, and got, someone to kill and eat — specifically his penis. From the look of it, and the trailers added to the DVD, you’d be forgiven for mistaking this for a genre horror movie, but it’s a more serious (and dreary) film than that. The events are filtered through the eyes of an American woman (Keri Russell) who investigates the case, though this adds little to the narrative. We get lots of sepia-toned flashbacks to understand the origins of the cannibal’s psychological problems, and they are rather obviously drawn. Thomas Kretschmann is good as Oliver, the penis-eater, but all these people speaking English to one another in German accents doesn’t help.
Fierce People
A rich, quirky drama with fine performances, directed by Griffin Dunne, who had the lead role in Martin Scorsese’s brilliant After Hours 22 years ago. Young Finn (Anton Yelchin) and his coke-snorting mom (Diane Lane) escape from a drug rap to a rich family’s holiday home; but bad things can happen even — or especially — there. Donald Sutherland also stars.
Yellow
Heartfelt melodrama about a Puerto Rican woman dancing her way to fulfilment. And she does a lot of different kinds of dancing, too — from ballet to stripping. Nicely shot. Stars Roselyn Sanchez.
Farce of the Penguins
A lot of Antarctic penguin footage, à la March of the Penguins, given comic voice-overs and a humorous narration by Samuel L Jackson. Well, someone must have thought it was funny; I didn’t.
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
This stiff period piece is based on Thornton Wilder’s 1928 novel about events surrounding the collapse of a bridge in the Peruvian Andes. It has a dream cast (Robert DeNiro, Gabriel Byrne, Kathy Bates, Harvey Keitel, Geraldine Chaplin, F Murray Abraham), but it feels like a mini-series that has been edited down to feature length — to no avail.