Shortbus

Shortbus is very high on the list of my most beloved movies. I can not avoid to call it a masterwork. And why is that so ?

It is a deeeply human movie. It has so many facettes, like comedic, sensual, pornographic, sad, senseful, atmospheric, toughtful, and many other things. It's a vibrant view on the lifes of some outsiders or people who don't fit in functionwise, and are searching for magic in their live, which is provided through the club shortbus as a catalysator. The movie is much too far off the main road to be swallowed in one session. It has to be watched sometimes, so one can find always new aspects and details.

While going very deep into some sad or explicit situations, Shortbus alwas stays lighthearted, not taking itself too serious. Acting is partially phenomenous, it's often more being than acting, so that I had the impression of sitting between those characters and watching them living, losing, hurting and hoping.

In the end, I am always a bit sad the movie is such a loner in the landscape. The concept is so easy, and not even its creator managed to make a follow-up. It's the actual proof that modern cinema can be glorious, intelligent, erotic, sensitive AND enjoyable. I do not want to believe that this proof will be the only one in decades.

We need at least a couple more movies like this, since we are all existing through sex and emotions, and we should enjoy the short time we have. At least, I need. And because I always feel good and lighthearted, in a way healed, after watching Shortbus.

Shortbus (2006) written/directed by John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) is truly not for the easily offended. It is the film like nothing I've seen before and I've seen many films. It should be named Real Sex and the City or Every Thing You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask had not the latter title been taken already by Woody Allen. Actually you don't have to ask anything - you will get more information and graphic answers that you ever would hope for. This is the film where the graphical sex scenes are in abundance, they are extremely explicit. John Cameron Mitchell means business, and he gets down to it. By his own words,

"In the old days, when you couldn't show sex on film, directors like Hitchcock had metaphors for sex (trains going into tunnels, etc). When you can show more realistic sex, the sex itself can be a metaphor for other parts of the character's lives. The way people express themselves sexually can tell you a lot about who they are. Some people ask me, "couldn't you have told the same story without the explicitness?" They don't ask whether I could've done Hedwig without the songs. Why not be allowed to use every paint in the paint box?" John Cameron Mitchell

But after the initial shock, you realize that there are ideas, feelings, the attempt to understand the important things - what do we want? What is sex for us? How to understand ourselves first of all, how to communicate your desires, how to fulfill them? Shortbus is totally honest; it does care about its characters, and tells their stories of struggling with all sorts of existential difficulties, sexual or not, without condescending, with the equal dozes of sweetness, wit, and understanding. The film was made by a talented filmmaker. The beginning scenes would certainly grab your attention while introducing a viewer to few New Yorkers whose lives will be intertwined later. The music score and the songs are nice and set a melancholic mood, they provide a welcomed rest for the passengers on the Shortbus. The cast that consists mainly of non-professional first time performers, did a convincing job. It is not porn, it is an independent dra-medy that uses sex scenes to answer many questions about life.

The DVD includes the documentary Gifted and Challenged: The Making of 'Shortbus'. I found the Making... quite interesting and a lot of fun.

What everyone will hear about "Shortbus" is that the sex is real and explicit. Yes, this is all true. But so is the emotional journey the characters go through.

Far from being crude or offensive, Shortbus is fresh, insightful, celebratory -- and, most importantly, focused on the fully realized people, not just the bodies, who bare their flesh and feelings on screen. Like Michael Winterbottom, who made the explicit "9 Songs," writer/director John Cameron Mitchell says he wants to show true human sexuality as part of his story. Unlike "9 Songs," which seemed to focus on 1/8 of the full human experience of relationships (concerts and sex), Mitchell's "Shortbus" approaches 9/10 of the authentic experience of being human, being miserable, looking to come to joy, and exploring funny, sensual, and affectionate avenues to get there.

Is "Shortbus" provocative? Yes. Is it explicit? Yes! And these are good things in these politically authoritarian times.

There are a couple of features about this movie that will hit you. Yes there is some rather graphic sex, but to anyone after hitting adulthood it works purely to support the film, erotic would be too strong a word for it. It is to everybody's' credit that this was possible. The model of New York works great and is a real devise for the movie.

As we progress through the film we see the lives of a small group of New Yorkers grow as they develop their relationships or indeed the quest for a relationship. The medium for bringing these lives together is the "Shortbus" club. A rather carnal club which they all drawn to becomes a focus for their development. Each confronts their own particular daemons. As heavy as this sounds, it is quite a light hearted film. The closing scenes are fantastic. As you watch this film you will feel yourself being dragged in, until the end when u feel almost as if you are part of it.

A great movie, one which should become a cult classic (only because it might be a bit too "graphic" for mainstream cinemas, but certainly a classic. Any attempt to sanitize and edit it would surely destroy the film.

This movie will make you laugh, cry and sing; you will leave the movie theatre affected by this film.

Director John Cameron Mitchell dares to take a retro-clinging America into the twenty-first century with this brave, humanistic art-house film wherein an ensemble cast of little known actors and numerous non-actors portray characters exploring emotions and relationships in a New York City underground club called the Shortbus.

As a gay couple with relationship problems, James (Paul Dawson) and Jamie (P.J. DeBoy), consult a young sex therapist named Sofia (Sook-Yin Lee) who, as it turns out, is in need of some therapy herself. The film's weak plot steers them to the Shortbus, wherein sex and open relationships trump everything else in life, as if people obsess about sex every minute of every day. The film's sex scenes are explicit and graphic, but never exploitative.

Most of the characters are to varying degrees pleasantly unique. I especially liked Justin Bond, the club's tour guide. The film's costumes and production design are terrific. Artwork is mod, as you would expect. And the film's music captures a progressive feel, and varies from nouveau jazz to the stirring humanistic anthem "In The End", performed by the entire cast, and led with flair by Justin Bond.

Unorthodox both in substance and style, in a society that too often demands traditional correctness, "Shortbus" is Mitchell's cinematic plea for cultural compassion and mercy, tolerance and acceptance. It is a cinematic theme that is much needed in America, where hatred and intolerance toward all things nonconforming seriously risk diversity of thought and behavior. At the very least, the film is a welcome change from your mainstream Hollywood assembly-line cinematic trash. I suspect, however, that "Shortbus" really is the wave of the future, particularly in forward-looking societies. More power to it.