Film: “Shortbus” the Review

I went to the preview of John Cameron Mitchell’s long awaited “Shortbus” last night with a friend and it was everything I expected and more. They were even handing out goodie bags with mini vibrators, condoms, and lube.

I knew I would have to write this entry. I was dreading it. Because I hate to not have anything bad to say about a movie. So I’m just going to say it was amazing and everyone has to see it. Okay maybe a bit more than that.

You know how some movies are at best a slice of pie? Well this is the whole unrated pie. It’s real, insane, funny, dark… I hope more films in the near future will strive to be this bold. It paints a true picture of people, their struggles, their pains, the thurst for human interaction and relationships, the thrive to learn and grow from one another… The sexual passion that moves people. The power of sex…

This is the type of movie I want to make. This is the type of character development I want to do. This is the type of casting I want to do. This is the DP I want to work with, the music I want in my films, the lighting, the textures, the animations the struggles the everything.

It opened in NYC yesterday (LA this Friday)… here’s the first NY Times review:

NEW YORK TIMES Manohla Dargis’ gushing rave review of Shortbus.

“As utopian visions go, it doesn’t get much better than Shortbus… Certainly it’s deeply, if promisingly, at odds with an American movie mainstream that has grown progressively more prudish about sex over the last three decades, while its representations of violence have grown more obscenely violent. Hollywood says let it bleed. Mr. Mitchell would rather we get off on life.” –NY Times, 10/4/06

Go see it! It starts Friday in LA at the Sunset 5 theater on Sunset Blvd. For more cities, visit their website. There are also many more previews happening around the country. See the previous post about Shortbus for all the links.

CHEERS!

~J