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Shortbus
Not for the faint of heart. John Cameron Mitchell's rip-roaring drama comedy about a collective of young people trying to connect with each other in post-9/11 New York approaches explicit sex in cinema unashamedly. One particularly memorable scene is an explicit gay threesome with rimming and blowjobs in close-up, and then a guy singing the national anthem into someone's ass while someone uses a dick as a microphone. There's also a number of explicit orgy scenes and heterosexual sex. Mitchell approached sex as another thing to be communicated, disliking the idea that a film with a plot that centralises sex should still dutifully refuse to film below the waist. It's an enthralling experience just to watch the film's nuances, what is effectively an art film in a more accessible package manages to cover all bases. The plot is fantastic, dealing with a various number of conflicting and introverted dilemmas, the writing is top-notch, the direction is great and the performances are astounding, especially considering the professionalism in the face of the subject matter and the medium. Undoubtedly a success of a film.
9/10.
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