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Posted by: Shale at April 20, 2008, 11:04 am

Topic: Shortbus Forum: JoBlo

Wow, I really liked this flick and am surprised at all the negative comments here. I'm attaching my review that I did immediately after seeing the flick, and my little DVD rating (Yes, I bought the DVD as soon as it came out - ordered it ahead of time actually.) I guess being bi, having had lots of sexual experience with gay guys and done everything that was on screen in this movie made it look more humorous and matter-of-fact to me rather than something shocking. Shortbus Shortbus Review by Shale October 21, 2006 Those who know me from this board and elsewhere will see that this is my kind of movie. It wasn't even on my to-see list this weekend, but I saw an article about it in the paper; how writer-director John Cameron Mitchell had to seek out actors by a Website who would be able to do a film depicting on-camera sex scenes as graphic as those found in porn movies. However, this is not a porn film. OK, maybe I am just too jaded, but there is a difference between a porn movie and a character driven movie that has porn type sex scenes in it. It is not like the Unrated Caligula, which added extraneous porn scenes that could be (and were) removed to make a second R-rated movie for wide distribution. This movie is ground-breaking in that it treats sex as a normal day-to-day occurrence that we all do and in those moments when other movies do implied sex; cut away or have sound and side views or undulating covers, this one shows us what most of us have seen in reality, real penis', mouths and vulvas making contact. (I should say ground-breaking American film, because I have seen such explicit matter-of-fact sex scenes in those ultimately depressing French Unrated movies.) There was a Star Trek episode that comes to mind here. It was intentionally laughing at the unreasonable human sexual modesty. An alien culture was encountered by the Enterprise crew and our humans highly offended these people by eating in public. Captain Picard pointed out that everyone eats, to which the alien ambassador responds that they always eat in private, never letting others see such a base animalistic act. This is one of those stoned philosophical musings from the "why don't we do it in the road" days of the sexual revolution. So, on with the story. Shortbus is the name of a New York underground club where sexually liberated people mingle, see stage acts or indulge in orgies or more intimate get-togethers in the back rooms. We don't get there right away, but from the start of this movie do have sex scenes with normal people doing what we've all done. The main characters are James (Paul Dawson) and Jamie (PJ DeBoy) a gay couple for some years going thru relationship changes. They go to a sex-therapist, Sophia (Sook-Yin Lee), who in a moment of exasperation divulges her inability to have an orgasm with or without her husband Rob (Raphael Barker). This is how we get to Shortbus. Other characters that get involved with these people are Severin (Lindsay Beamish) a professional dominatrix who fears a relationship and works with Sophia on their problems, Caleb (Peter Stickles) a voyeur spying on the two Jamies and Seth (Jay Brannan) who joins the two Jamies. Rob and Sophie discuss faked orgasms Jamie and James enter Shortbus Caleb & Seth, Jamie & James at Shortbus All these people get it on in the privacy of their respective intimate places and we are allowed to be a fly on the wall in each of them. And what differentiates this from a porn film is that it is so mundane and common (at least to some of us). The sex is incidental to the story and refreshingly honest. This movie is highly recommended to those who are sexually experienced (or wannabe) and can take as day-to-day the myriad ways people rub their parts to achieve that orgasmic moment together or alone. When it comes out on DVD I plan to add it to my extensive movie collection. A note on movie ratings: Whenever I went to one of those very sexually explicit Unrated French movies, I always assumed they would be treated as NC-17. In Rene Rodriguez' review in the Miami Herald, it is mentioned, "No children under 17 admitted." However, today I asked at the box office if this Unrated movie would be considered NC-17 and was told no, just Unrated. This was confirmed by a manager at the Regal South Beach Theater on Lincoln Road, Miami Beach, who said it eventually might be rated NC-17 but for now, I could bring my 15-year-old grandson to see it. I would give this a 4 DVD rating (Actually I got this DVD in March 07 for $20) Shale Movie Rating Scale: 0 DVD - No I would not waste my money or time seeing this movie again. 1 DVD - I would get this DVD for $5 or $7 2 DVD - I would get this DVD for $10 3 DVD - I would get this DVD for $15 4 DVD - I would get this DVD for $25 as soon as it was released.

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