Tuesday, January 10, 2012

We're Not Bad People.

SHAME (2011)
Here's a challenge: how do you make sex with two beautiful actors look repulsive and ugly on screen? The repetition. The uncomfortable expressions on the actors faces. All the quiet little details that give the scene the edge of unease it needs to make the audience squirm in their seats...and not in a good way. Shame follows the life of Brandon Sullivan (Michael Fassbender)--the man all the girls want and all the guys want to be. He's a successful business man and attractive bachelor with no emotional commitments to weigh him down. He's also a sex addict of the ADD generation whose inner demons rear their ugly heads when his down-and-out sister (Carey Mulligan) moves in with him and upsets the delicate balance of his sanity.

One of the real accomplishments of Shame is that director Steve McQueen manages to take the very temptations that Hollywood so often uses to draw people to the box office--sex, beautiful women, attractive actors--and twists in it on its head. The magic of this subtle yet brilliant little trick is the fact that instead of buying into a "time is money" feel, McQueen lingers in every scene. We have long, fleshed out gazes into Brandon's life instead of brief snippets and highlights. At one point, Brandon goes on a date, and we get the first ten minutes of the date in a single shot, getting everything from what food they order to the way they awkwardly stumble from topic to topic with nervous first date smiles. By dragging the scene out without any snappy cuts and breaks, we've ceased to become movie-watchers and instead become voyeurs, hooked on watching these characters bear themselves bit by bit.

McQueen doesn't bother with trying to explain why Brandon is the way he is or what led him and his sister to lead such self-destructive lives with distracting flashbacks and forced exposition; instead, he holds us in every second of the painful present and doesn't let go. As Michael Fassbender said, "There is no place to hide in this whole script." Between the fearless acting, the solid script, and the unflinching eye of Steve McQueen, Shame is, if nothing else, the most courageous film of the year. The characters bare themselves (literally and figuratively) again and again, yet, like Brandon, when the film tempts us with "Want to play?", we find ourselves unable to look away. 

8 comments:

  1. I like movies that are difficult and show us more than we might initially want to see - so this one sounds like it will be unspooling before my eyes at some point. Excellent review!

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  2. Thanks! I agree with you there, I definitely love a good, intense, slightly masochistic movie. There a few modern movies that can pull off that "excessive uncomfortable sex on screen" bit without making it...well. Sexy. Example: 8 1/2 made me cringe when they were chasing the naked woman through the water, the more recent Nine was just...eye candy. Steve McQueen is the man.

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  3. Great review. This is high on my "to see" list. Based on your description I'll keep it there (until I do see it, of course.) Sounds like a convincing approach.

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  4. Thanks, homie! I'd definitely put it on your to-see list, it's a good one, even if it's unfortunately hard to get your hands on.

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  5. I love Fassbender and think he has tremendous range. I have definitely got this on my must watch list and your review has moved it even higher. I love this new site.

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  6. Fassbender is a BAMF. All there is to it. He really is going to have to try very, very hard to disappoint me.

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  7. Great review! I haven't really heard of a "must-see" movie in ages, but I think this is it.

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  8. Wow, what a remarkable review. Shame is my favorite film of the year, and it did it great justice with this write up. I completely agree that it turns familiar Hollywood formulas on their head. And the whole notion viewing as voyeurs definitely rings true in the date scene, and, in my opinion, the movie as a whole.

    Well done!

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