Shortbus
Shortbus opens with a series of un-staged sexually explicit scenes occurring in various parts of New York City, as a means to introduce its various characters and couples. I’ll get back to the plot in a minute. The main controversy surrounding this film is of course the copious amount of real sex. While it is not the first film I’ve seen that crosses those boundaries (Brown Bunny being the most recent) well I don’t think I have seen any movie that is so generous with its hardcore content without being outright exploitative or pornographic. In fact the opposite happens, like swearing in a Martin Scorsese flick, the sheer volume of sex quickly desensitizes the viewer and becomes a background element. And like swearing, sex is not an emotion, but instead a vehicle to communicate feelings. This is the most successful element of the movie, its ability to convey anything from humor to heart crushing sadness amidst true sexual interaction.
Back to the plot. As I was saying the opening sequence introduces us to the cast of characters by serving up cross sections of their sex lives, connected by swooping camera shots traveling through a brightly colored scale model of New York. This miniature NY serves as a map, anchoring the events into the city and sometimes giving way to a more global view of what is going on. Along the way the camera stops to show us James (Paul Dawson) who is attempting to fellate himself on film. It also shows us Sofia (Sook-Yin Lee) having lots of acrobatic sex with her husband and latter Severin, a professional dominatrix attempting to perform her duties despite a barrage of mundane and asexual questions from her client. When he asks her what superpower she would like to have she responds “the power to make you interesting”, only the first of many great one liners in the movie. Orgasms are had by all and the actual plot begins in earnest. James for example is dating Jamie, a former child star and the goofy ying to his perpetually depressed yang. They visit Sofia who happens to be a sex therapist (although she prefers the term ‘couples councilor’) seeking advice on how to open up their relationship. Jamie’s grating personality gets the best of her and she ends up lashing out at him, latter confessing that she is under a lot of stress due to her inability to have an orgasm.
They invite her to Shortbus, kind of like a speakeasy that deals in sex instead of alcohol. Equal parts orgy, cabaret, film festival and open forum, all the movies characters mingle and converge in the Shortbus club. Sofia moves around in shock and awe at the characters and caricatures she meets while James and Jamie troll for possible partners for their first threesome as a couple. Within Shortbus is where most of the social commentary takes place, be it some heavy handed gags about our obsession with technology and gadgets or much more subtle and heart wrenching commentary from an old man who claims to be a former mayor of New York. And the places owner (Justin Bond playing himself) is a riot, dropping OG wisdom mixed with cutting wit, disarming hipster pretensions left and right. From there on everyone embarks on quests, some obvious (Sofia’s quest for an orgasm) and some much more mysterious (the video James is making, Severin’s desire for a real relationship) and thanks to the mostly improvised dialog some performances can be unnervingly vulnerable, much more intimate than the genital interactions shown earlier. Still for such an uncompromising motion picture I was disappointed when the uncharacteristically happy ending rolled around, which like the slang implies feels like a rushed hand job after an hour and a half of much more intense emotions.
