Steve McQueen’s (Hunger) Shame has been making giant splashes at the festivals it has premiered at thus far for its provocative subject matter and graphic nature, hence the need to slap an NC-17 rating on the heavy handed drama. It has become one of my favorite films of the year and a must see for those who want to know how sex and film can be combined for truly beautiful cinematic art.
Shame is about a 30 something New York resident named Brandon (Michael Fassbender) who lives alone in his apartment in order to cope with his sexual addictions. No matter the time or place, Brandon is unable to suppress his sexual urges and will do anything that is necessary to temporarily relieve his desires, be it through online porn, prostitutes or masturbation in a public bathroom. When his sister Sissy (Carey Mulligan) moves into his apartment for an indefinite period of time, Brandon’s world begins to spiral angrily out of control.
Shame is a movie about addiction, human contact and simply being alive. Fassbender delivers an extraordinary performance that captures this basic need of human contact through his constant craving for animalistic sex. He is short term oriented and can only be completely satisfied the moment he gets his rocks off, nothing before or after seems to make him happy. It is his inability to form relationships that seems to be the cause of all his problems. There is a point in the film where he attempts to ‘make love’ with Marianne (Nicole Beharie), a woman who he took out to dinner and had a conversation with about relationships, and later in the film he tries to take it a step further but can’t go through with it, he can’t have a social connection with the people he screws, it’s a problem and the source of all his bottled up anger.
What I absolutely loved even more about the film was the direction and writing style. McQueen and screenwriter Abi Morgan were both explicit and ambiguous in the way they structured the story and the characters’ dialogue. For example, there is an unknown tension between Brandon and Sissy. It is clear something had happened to them in the past, either in Ireland or after they moved, but we never find out, it is left up to our interpretation. When you combine this with the fact that they have both seen each other naked without being scarred by the sight of the experience, it may lead your mind elsewhere in that interpretation. Sissy states that “we aren’t bad people, we just come from a bad place” which, to me, sums everything up without having to say anything else.
Additionally, the way the film was shot and scored made it a beauty to watch and listen to. Throughout most of the film McQueen uses long interrupted takes so that you can focus Michael’s interactions with others and how both subjects respond to the issues at hand. As for the music, it is a classical score 
and remains consistent with the type of Music Brandon listens to in the movie in order to calm himself down and avoid lashing out at others. The heavy classical music also compliments the intensity of some of the long sex scenes, especially the graphic and emotional threesome Brandon has at one point. The way it is shot, McQueen wants you to feel bad for Brandon while beautifying this aggressive sexcapade.
As I’ve mentioned before, since there isn’t a whole lot of dialogue in the film, everything rests on the performers. Mulligan and Fassbender did an excellent job filling the voids with their facial expressions, allowing you to interpret the words that their faces made and what you think is going on inside their head. It is something similar that we have seen in Drive, another movie starring Carey Mulligan, and for both it proves to be extremely successful.
I have this gut feeling that Shame is one of those movies you could watch multiple times and discover something new on each consecutive viewing. I know I desperately want to see it again in order to understand more about the characters and, specifically, more about Michael’s addiction and inability to maintain relationships. It is a film that is open to reflection and will keep you in conversations with other who have seen it for hours. Overall, Shame is one of the best films of the year due to its structure, ambiguity, artistic integrity, and honest portrayal of those who struggle with addition.
Rating: Graphic, throught provoking and, to put it simply, an artistic masterpiece (9.8/10)
Shame is screening at the NYFF and is being distributed by Fox Searchlight.
Recent Comments