¨We’re not
bad people, we just come from a bad place.¨
It is a shame
that Shame did not receive more love from the Academy voters last year because
it truly is a powerful film with one of the best performances of the year
coming from Michael Fassbender. This is the second time that Fassbender teams
up with director Steve McQueen after his feature film debut, Hunger. That film
opened up a lot of doors for both McQueen and Fassbender who have outdone
themselves again with this raw and dark film about a man who is so addicted to
sex and porn that he has completely lost touch with human interactions and
relationships. On the surface he looks like a very successful man, living on
his own in a nice apartment in New York and being congratulated for his work by
his boss who enjoys hanging out with him at night and hitting on women. The
viewer could assume that this man is very privileged, however from one of the
early scenes we see how out of touch Fassbender’s character really is to human
interaction when he hits on a girl on a subway who is feeling uncomfortable
with his glances. She tries to avoid contact with him showing him her ring and
that she’s married, but Fassbender completely misinterprets these signals and
follows her, only realizing later that she is not hitting on him but rather
running away from him. We later come to understand his character when he tries
to go on a normal date with a co-worker and mentions how he doesn’t believe in
relationships. Many people probably don’t consider sex an addiction, but
McQueen makes a valid point here showing how negative and destructive it can be
on a person by making them completely lose their touch on reality and human
interaction. It is similar to Hunger in that the main character begins to lose
touch with reality, but on a whole different level here. This film is rated
NC-17 because of the strong sexual content, but believe me this is not a sexy or
romantic film, it really shows you how addictive sex can be and the toll it can
take on people when there is no love or relationships involved.
Brandon
(Michael Fassbender) seems to have a very successful life living in New York
City and meeting a lot of attractive women. He seems to spend all day obsessed with
sex however as we see him with prostitutes and looking at porn in his computer.
From the very beginning we see how Brandon enjoys his life while delving into
this sexual addiction he has. His boss David (James Badge Dale) even warns him
that they have found a large amount of pornography on his computer in the
office, but concludes that it had to be an intern that was playing a joke on
him because it would take a very sick man to have all that filth on a computer
at work. He ends up congratulating Brandon on closing a very important deal at
the office and they decide to go out and celebrate with the rest of their
co-workers. When David tries to hit on a hot looking girl in the bar, we see
how Brandon manages to flirt with her without saying a word and ends up
sleeping with her. Brandon seems to have a perfect life, he enjoys the control
he has over his life and the fact that he doesn’t have to have a serious
relationship. However he loses that sense of control when his sister, Sissy
(Carey Mulligan) shows up at his apartment and asks him if she could stay with
him for a couple of days. They share a very strange relationship, and Sissy
seems to come with some baggage of her own, but you can tell that they love
each other in a very bizarre way. Nicole Beharie plays Brandon’s co-worker,
Marianne, who goes out on a couple of dates with him and is probably the
closest thing to a relationship that he has experienced in years.
I already
mentioned how well Fassbender and McQueen worked together in this film, but I
also have to give credit to Carey Mulligan who gave a very strong performance
here as well. She doesn’t get as much screen time as Fassbender, but she holds
her own next to his powerful performance. She even has a three minute scene
that was shot in one take of her singing her own version of New York New York
at a restaurant. She did a wonderful job here as well in this very complicated,
dark, and raw human drama. The film plays out really well as this character
study and explores sexual addiction in a very different light than most
Hollywood films do. This shows you another side to sex and pornography in a
very dark light. I think it will play out as a cult film in the same way
Requiem for a Dream did. This film delves more on sexual addiction while the
other one had to do more with drug addiction. I still can’t believe Fassbender
and Mulligan didn’t receive Academy nominations for their strong performances
here. This is a very powerful film, but probably not for all considering the
dark subject matter.
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