I took from my five remaining daily hours of sleep schedule to go watch Shortbus last Sunday.
I know it’s been released a few eons ago in other parts of the civilized world and that, by now, everybody has either seen it or think John Cameron Mitchell is the antichrist (or both)… Yet I felt I should add to the general consensus (met amidst people of taste):
This is one brilliant, thoroughly enjoyable movie.
Definitely not a family movie, and you might not want to take a date there without checking out before… But otherwise: best way to spend ten bucks with your clothes on, these days.
Ha! So did you spot which one of the Big Os was fake? The Anti-Christ himself hinted that indeed only one was simulated. I don’t know about others, but that was a tad too much information for my liking…!
I didn’t know about this bit of trivia beforehands, and therefore didn’t examine closely every featured Petites Morts, so as to identify a potential fake… Some of the girl-related ones may have seemed a bit dubious, maybe…?
Regarding TMI-factor, not sure if you mean one particular scene, or the film as a whole… I’d say “information” is a bit of an understatement here… But what I liked is precisely how, once you get past the fact that you are basically watching full-on hardcore porn/erotic scenes in a movie, both the actual plot and the scenes are pretty funny/interesting to watch, imho. I don’t know of any other director having successfully managed this so far (and quite a few have tried: both “porn with a real plot” and “plot-movie with real porn” concepts are nothing new in artsy cinema)…
There again, I can see how not everybody may be into this movie. And although this was in fact a date movie, I don’t know that I would take any random date to such a movie…
Oh no, I meant that the Anti-Christ gave TMI about the one fake Petite Mort (how hilarious are the French!?). The film itself was fine, as far as what the director was trying to say. Yeah, fairly interesting… and on the contrary, I don’t see it as having much to do with the physical act of sex.
I watched Shortbus movie one month ago. And I can’t say that John Cameron Mitchell is antichrist… This film is amazing attempt to show people what sexuality is… I like this perfect work of John.
I found there was an overall sweetness to the film, starting with the overview of New York made of toy blocks, that was almost childlike, in spite of the superficially risqué subject matter. The “cameo” appearance of (fake) Mayor Koch made the audience in Chelsea, where I saw it, gasp, especially after he asks to be forgiven for having been afraid…The movie has a sentimental, “I Will Survive” quality to it, a sort of cultural, underground response to the political neurosis openly cultivated by the current régime.
It’s clear that this film signals the arrival of that previously teased and flirted with next step in cinema… the serious blue movie, the critically held-up-&-savvied art/borderline commercial film with real sex, no doubt about it.
This is the REAL “Eyes Wide Shut”, in a sense, the film they wouldn’t let Stanley Kubrick make, on the level of what is shown.