Shame [HD]

A Compelling Dance Of Dysfunction That Seems Designed To Polarize Its Audience
While most mainstream critics have praised the daring work of leads Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan, the reception to co-writer/director Steve McQueen's "Shame" has been somewhat mixed. It's really no surprise as this gritty and unpleasant film seems designed to polarize its audience. A lot of attention has been focused on the film's nudity and sexual content, and I'm pleased to see that the dreaded NC-17 rating hasn't discouraged year-end accolades from being awarded to its stars. While I'm not sure that "Shame" is as fraught with meaning as some of its more ardent supporters would have you believe, I do think that it is a dizzyingly unique film. As a character study, and a fascinating one at that, the screenplay actually tells you very little about the central pair of disturbed siblings. And yet, as the film progressed, my mind filled in all the blanks. You are invited to watch their most intimate and destructive behavior while only given clues as to the psychological...

Fantastic filmmaking that's still hard to recommend.
WARNING: While not explicit, per se...this review does touch on some subject matter some folks might simply not want to read about. I don't mean to offend anyone, but there's no way to review the movie otherwise, in my opinion.

SHAME has been called the "movie about the sex addict" and this is a rather unfair over-simplification. It also implies that there might be lots of juicy sex scenes, especially given its NC-17 rating. If THIS is what you're expecting, you are in for a disappointment.

Director Steve McQueen's film is a character study of one very specific sex addict, Brandon (Michael Fassbender). And I'm not even sure if Brandon is a sex addict or something different. He is certainly a man driven to spending virtually all his spare time (and much of his time at work) viewing porn and pleasuring himself. He spends lots of money on prostitutes. He is also attractive enough to draw yearning from women looking for a good time and a quickie in an alley...

A Compelling Dance Of Dysfunction That Seems Designed To Polarize Its Audience
While most mainstream critics have praised the daring work of leads Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan, the reception to co-writer/director Steve McQueen's "Shame" has been somewhat mixed. It's really no surprise as this gritty and unpleasant film seems designed to polarize its audience. A lot of attention has been focused on the film's nudity and sexual content, and I'm pleased to see that the dreaded NC-17 rating hasn't discouraged year-end accolades from being awarded to its stars. While I'm not sure that "Shame" is as fraught with meaning as some of its more ardent supporters would have you believe, I do think that it is a dizzyingly unique film. As a character study, and a fascinating one at that, the screenplay actually tells you very little about the central pair of disturbed siblings. And yet, as the film progressed, my mind filled in all the blanks. You are invited to watch their most intimate and destructive behavior while only given clues as to the psychological origins...

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