Shortbus-Run, don't walk

[Rod Hagen]

Not up for one of my long-ass movie reviews, but all I say is thank god he made this movie, and thank god the first movie of this kind was made by him. See it.

[Rod Hagen]

The website:

http://www.shortbusthemovie.com/

 

NYTimes Review:

 

October 4, 2006

MOVIE REVIEW | 'SHORTBUS'

Naughty and Nice in a Carnal Carnival

 

By MANOHLA DARGIS

As utopian visions go, it doesn’t get much better than “Shortbus,” a film in which all you need is love — and sex, lots and lots of mutually, sometimes collectively, pleasurable sex. John Cameron Mitchell wrote and directed, though orchestrated might be the better word for a carnivalesque romp in which men and women engage in sex in a multitude of creative combinations. An ode to the joy and sweet release of sex, the film manages to be a sincere, modest political venture that finds humor where you might least expect it, notably in a ménage à trois featuring a cheeky rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner.”

 

It may be no surprise that questions of beauty and the sublime, as well as those of politics, rarely factor into the equation when a frisky blond neighbor in a pornographic video casually drops by. But it’s incredible how most nonpornographic films are also dumb about sex, particularly in America, where copulation too often leads to frenzied violence or soft-core clichés. Mr. Mitchell, who previously wrote, directed and starred in “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” has said that he wanted to make a film in which sex wasn’t negative or dreary. He also wanted his creation to serve as “a small act of resistance against Bush and the America we live in because it’s trying to remind people of good things about America and New York.”

 

Set in rooms scattered across Brooklyn and Manhattan, “Shortbus” locates much of that good in the hearts, minds and bodies of a young gay man, James (Paul Dawson); his married therapist, Sofia (Sook-Yin Lee); and a lonely dominatrix, Severin (Lindsay Beamish). Struggling with the most intimate of problems, each seems one teardrop away from a meltdown. The sorrow plaguing James, who’s in a committed relationship with the relentlessly upbeat Jamie (P J DeBoy), and Sofia, who’s married to the seemingly stolid Rob (Raphael Barker), prevents each from fully committing to their partners and, by extension, to the world beyond. For her part, Severin, at once naughty and nice, communicates with others mainly by way of an efficiently applied whip that’s begun to leave welts on her psyche.

 

Mr. Mitchell isn’t the first nonpornographic filmmaker to incorporate sexually explicit material into his work, but he may be the most optimistic and good-natured. Pier Paolo Pasolini, Catherine Breillat and Lars von Trier, among others, each have gone where few career-sensitive filmmakers dare. But enterprises like Nagisa Oshima’s 1976 shocker, “In the Realm of the Senses,” an explicit story of sexual obsession that culminates in castration, tend to turn on the mind more than the body. Designed for intellectual provocation and aesthetic transgression rather than purely instrumental purposes, the sex in films of the more serious sort tends to be a drag. There is, surprise, surprise, nothing like naked bodies writhing under the aegis of a political metaphor to dampen the libido (and spirit).

 

Make those bodies laugh as well as writhe, as Mr. Mitchell does here, and the metaphors can feel less punishing, more palatable. The title of one of Ms. Breillat’s gentler provocations is “Sex Is Comedy,” which Mr. Mitchell could have borrowed for his own. The man was born for vaudeville: he likes big laughs and gestures, both in abundance here as coupling bodies. He also likes funny noises, goofy accouterments and soapsuds of drama: one character in “Shortbus” wants to die; another wants to experience what the French call the little death. Yet another likes to watch, a nod to the pleasures of voyeurism that in time also becomes a lesson about vacating your comfort zone for a role in the human comedy.

 

Unlike traditional hard-core features, in which the sexual encounters interrupt the story like a number in a 1930’s Busby Berkeley musical, the carnal interludes in “Shortbus” are integrated into the narrative, much as the singing and dancing are in “Oklahoma!” This integration goes a long way to normalizing the sex, making it seem matter-of-fact, natural, and it also normalizes watching this kind of material in the kind of public space where you don’t need a roll of quarters to keep the images flowing. Mr. Mitchell sustains this sense of everyday ease even when the characters start frequenting Shortbus, a sex club with the relaxed vibe and noise level of a nice restaurant, albeit one with condoms on the menu rather than small plates.

 

Part cabaret, part commune, the club functions as an adults-only playground, as well as a testing ground for Utopia; in other words, it’s America without the plastic, the fear and the hate. Mr. Mitchell has said that the title “Shortbus” refers to the smaller yellow buses sometimes used to shuttle special-needs students to school. That doesn’t mean that the kids aboard his bus shouldn’t receive the same breaks as those riding on the bigger buses; if James and Jamie wanted to get hitched at City Hall after a night of swinging, Mr. Mitchell would probably be happy to act as a witness. But mainstreaming into a culture that insists on turning people and sex into commodities, among its other ills, may not necessarily make for a happy ending.

 

Mr. Mitchell finds his happy ending in raucous music and warm caresses, in an oceanic feeling in which everyone is free to be freakily you and me. His idealism is pleasingly touching and just maybe a bit naïve. It’s an idealism that feels out of place next to the hot-to-trot television housewives, panting pop divas, cringingly graphic memoirs and novels in which sex is an index of late capitalism at its most bleak. Certainly it’s deeply, if promisingly, at odds with an American movie mainstream that has grown progressively more prudish about sex over the last three decades, while its representations of violence have grown more obscenely violent. Hollywood says let it bleed. Mr. Mitchell would rather we get off on life.

 

SHORTBUS

 

Opens today in Manhattan.

 

Written and directed by John Cameron Mitchell; director of photography, Frank G. DeMarco; edited by Brian A. Kates; music by Yo La Tengo; production designer, Jody Asnes; produced by Howard Gertler, Tim Perell and Mr. Mitchell; released by ThinkFilm. Running time: 102 minutes. This film is not rated.

 

WITH: Sook-Yin Lee (Sofia), Paul Dawson (James), Lindsay Beamish (Severin), P J DeBoy (Jamie), Raphael Barker (Rob) and Peter Stickles (Caleb).

 

 

http://www.RodHagen.com

310.360.9890

Fun, Fit, Friendly Fucker in West Hollywood.

-Rod Hagen

[dfw2sfo]

Going to see the 12:10 Friday.

[spiro3]

Can't wait to see it......saw the trailer last night at a showing of "Science of Sleep" which I found visually beautiful, but kind of hard to stay awake for.....guess I'm just not into abstract fantasy that much,I need more of a story line, but Gael Garcia Bernal is sure fun to watch.

 

Anyway, Shortbus looks very hot...and funny to boot.

[Rod Hagen]

>Anyway, Shortbus looks very hot...and funny to boot.

 

It's more joyful than hot. Some don't like it because they expected it to be erotic, but that's not his style, and I think playful was a better approach for the first movie of this kind.

[+ Tom Isern]

Thanks, Rod, for posting this review. I saw Shortbus last night and loved it too—one of the most original and exciting new films in years! I plan to see it again asap.

 

I think it’s interesting that the reviewer begins with the utopia theme. The movie certainly reads that way to me. Moving to New York in ’95, I caught glimpses of the old New York we’ve discussed, the New York of Times Square Red, Times Square Blue, the New York of the movie “Sex in the 70s,” and how wonderful, free, exciting, egalitarian/democratic, transgressive, communal, and fun the city AS sex was. The spaces I knew—the old Zone DK, the sex party LOAD, the “studio” before people stopped going there, etc.—these places were utopian to me. They were places of sexual exploration where I met friends and socialized in ways I never dreamed were possible. And this movie catches a glimpse of that, and perhaps even promises a return of sorts. I hear that there is a culture around John Cameron Mitchell that lives this lifestyle. Anyone know if that is true?

 

Ernst Bloch writes about two different kinds of utopias. There is the abstract utopia that is naïve and made of fantasy and wish fulfillment; it promises without any plan or intent to deliver. Concrete utopias, by contrast, are thinking about the present, critiquing it, working toward a transformation in the future. Which do you think this movie represents?

 

I’d be more willing to grant that Mitchell is “the most optimistic and good-natured” by way of incorporating sexually explicit material if the film weren’t so damned white. I think there was one black person in the film; he appeared in the orgy scene for about 3 seconds. Were there ANY Latin men? How can a film that went so far to incorporate diverse ages, cross-generational sex (loved the Mayor!), bodies of every type, etc. have been so utterly blind to race?

 

Unfortunately, at this point I’m tempted to think, and desperately want to be convinced otherwise, that Shortbus is not about social transformation but about fantasy—and that it’s a very particular kind of very white and "for beautiful people" fantasy.

[Rod Hagen]

>Unfortunately, at this point I’m tempted to think, and

>desperately want to be convinced otherwise, that Shortbus is

>not about social transformation but about fantasy—and that

>it’s a very particular kind of very white and "for beautiful

>people" fantasy.

 

Shortbus is about how hard it is to be happy, and how wonderful it is when you are.

 

Very glad you liked it. I don't have time to "discuss" it here more unfortunately.

 

RH

 

p.s. the main girl is Asian (and ugly too!)

[Guest Havan_IronOak]

saw this last thursday at the DC Reel Affirmations Film Festival and it was WONDERFUL. It is more playful than erotic but you are warned about that by the ending of the opening scene. A man is naked. Bathing in an old porcelain tub. filming his privates with a video camera. Then the erotic takes 2 quick turns toward truth and humor.

 

This film HAS truth and it HAS humor. It also has beautiful boys (and girls) performing real (not simulated sex) for your viewing pleasure. Moreover these are not wooden semi-comatose porn actors these are characters that you quickly come to care about. This is definately a groundbreaking film.

 

I've seen a LOT of gay films this year (somewhere between 75 & 100) and THIS is definately the best feature length film so far this year

[dfw2sfo]

Well I did go to the 12:10 several weeks ago and it was very good. I am hoping this will establish/reinforce a better representation of sexuality on film.

[LearnedOwl]

Two thumbs up. Like the review that described it as joyful. And funny.

And a nice gay love story is icing on the cake. See it. And if you can't see it in the theater buy the DVD. I for one am looking forward to the DVD. Hope it has a cool commentary on what is was like making a sexually frank movie like this.

[+ Lucky]

"I've seen a LOT of gay films this year (somewhere between 75 & 100) and THIS is definately the best feature length film so far this year"

 

There are 100 feature length gay films?

[Guest Havan_IronOak]

I didn't say feature length but to date IMDb has 71 films tagged as gay-interest for 2006 and I've seen 29 of them. 201 for 2005 of which I've seen 82. So overall... Yeah.

 

 

BTW... of the 2005 crop

 

my favs are

Brokeback Mountain (2005)(my vote 10/10)

Starcrossed (2005) SHORT (my vote 9/10)

Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros (my vote 9/10)

Cote d'Azur (2005) (USA) (My vote (9/10)

 

 

 

and of the 2006 crop

 

Camp Out (2006) DOCUMENTARY (my vote 9/10)

Rag Tag (2006) (my vote 9/10)

East Side Story (my vote 8/10)

Two Nights (2006) (my vote 8/10)

Fat Girls (2006) (my vote 8/10)

Davy and Stu (2006) SHORT (my vote 8/10)

[+ Lucky]

Thanks for calling this film to my attention, Rod. I saw it yesterday and thought it was a brilliant and beautiful film.

Very sexy, too.

[Luv2play]

Ouch, that hurts! Sook-Yin Lee is a radio and television personality here in Canada, although I mostly listen to her on the radio. She has a fun personality on air and, of course, her looks don't matter. I've seen her a few times on television and while no Mata Hari, she is not what I would call "ugly". Still, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

 

Looking forward to seeing the film.

[Luv2play]

Saw the film today and have to say I agree with the consensus here that it was fun and sexy to watch. I agree that it wasn't very racially mixed, which I would have preferred, but as they say, you can't have everything. My advice is, if you have the chance, go and see it.

[Luv2play]

Saw the film today and have to say I agree with the consensus here that it was fun and sexy to watch. I agree that it wasn't very racially mixed, which I would have preferred, but as they say, you can't have everything. My advice is, if you have the chance, go and see it.