Shortbus (Unrated Edition)

Right off, I feel like I need to tell anyone who is planning on seeing this film, that it has adult content and situations that most people are not used to seeing in the mainstream cinema.I mean, this film has displays of human interaction that most directors have NEVER filmed in mainstream cinema EVER. So filmgoers PLEASE be warned before you watch!!!Moving on, I'd say this movie is basically about want. There's one character, the character who is a couples counselor, who wants to have an (Oh...I think a LOT of you know what I want to say.) But the thing is, is that this particular character seems to have an 'abundant' relationship with her husband (if you know what I mean), so why she has NEVER had an (Oh...you know what I'm getting at) is BEYOND me?I mean, a better character development for her would've been if she had quite the opposite with her husband. Because to see the two of them go at it--like at the very beginning of the movie, it's kinda shocking (to say the least) that the two of them have NEVER hit pay dirt. I think that for this part of the movie, the screenplay sorta over thunk the wheel.Though nevertheless, this dilemma is the reason we are pretty much introduced to the 'Shortbus' a type of social club where individuals go to meet and experience other people for these particular 'encounters' of...(well, insert adult content here.)I guess this couples counselor feels like this is the ONE place that will help her get to what she's trying to find--even though, given her status as a sex therapist/counselor, you'd think she'd approach this place with a certain amount of suspicion. Though wouldn't she be the eager beaver!Though backing up a little, she finds out about this 'Shortbus' place because of the couple she is currently treating--the two Jamie's--though one of them is now going by the name James.Going back to the theme of want, Jamie just wants to sustain his relationship with James--hence their session with the counselor.The want of James...well, that's a little more complicated because he has these issues that's making him quite depressed--he even takes pills to try to combat this depression. Only he's thinking ahead a bit and not wanting his lover Jamie to be...well, alone, initiates the two of them going to the 'Shortbus' to meet a third person.On the surface, this premise seems quite intriguing--aren't all threesomes supposed to be this way? Only James has a sort of ulterior motive working, because deep down he knows just how depressed he really is and well, because of this depression, he knows how things are probably going to turn out...so, like I said, he doesn't want his lover Jamie to be alone.Now just moving to this part of the film, I can honestly say that I was 'IN'. Forget that James and Jamie and their newly found third lover Ceth (pronounced Seth) move things along rather quickly to the point where they're all pretty much engaged in certain 'activities'. By this point, I was 'IN'!!! REALLY, I was!!! But then...I don't (can't) really elaborate on what happens. Though I CAN say that the national anthem is sung by Jamie and all I could think at that point was 'I'M OUT'!!! Because to have to have Jamie sing the anthem (as it were) was sooo unnecessary. It's like the director was afraid to do the scene straight (seriously, no pun intended!) And so he had to insert these 'funny' moments. Though to me, they came off as 'funny odd'?It's like I wish I could've told the director to trust his audience to be able to take the scene as it was. Or as it could've been.Because all of the silliness of the singing of the national anthem, sorta reduced the scene and really threw it away. Like the scene could've really did something amazing. It could've shed some light and truth and honesty. And been really powerful. Only with the singing, the whole thing came off as a big 'WHAT'?And the thing that kills me, is that the actors involved in the scene were TOTALLY on board with the whole thing. (And that's what can make an audience be on board too!) I mean, I didn't notice any of the actors holding back, so why did it seem as though the director was holding back? (By resorting to comedy.)I felt like this movie did this a lot. It was all trying to be out there with this level of (well, insert adult content here) but then it would sorta turn the corner with all this zany stuff--like this big confrontational scene at the 'Shortbus' between the couple's counselor and this guy who's been hanging kinda close to James and Jamie. Well, because of this egg the counselor is 'holding' onto, here comes more of the zaniness.Oh well, this movie did a lot. (Was this movie supposed to be a comedy?) I guess I just wish it could've been more dramatic.Five stars anyway. : (

Shortbus is the dream child of writer/director John Cameron Mitchell, who brought us the delightful film, Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Mr. Mitchell wanted his next film to be about sex and sexuality and he had seen foreign films where the actors actually had sex on screen as part of the film, but he had not known of any English-language ones. He wanted to make the first, and what he has come up with is a delightful essay of a small group of people's sexual problems and their attempts to remedy those problems.This is a not-rated movie and the viewer immediately finds out why. The opening shot is of the head of Lady Liberty in New York City with the soundtrack belting out the words, "Is you is or is you not my baby? The way you have been acting leaves me doubt." As the song goes on the camera sails through the windows of several people's bedrooms while they are engaged in the most intimate of moments. In the first zoom through a window the audience sees a naked semi-erect man sitting in a bath tub taking film footage of his penis. Next we zoom through the window of an S&M hooker spraying off her assortment of dildos while being questioned by her john. Then we zoom back to the first man who is now filming himself trying to perform fellatio on himself. Next we zoom through the window in an apartment where a man is performing cunnilingus on an oriental woman who is sitting naked on a grand piano and then the couple goes through a wide assortment of gymnastic contortions of sexual intimacy. Zoom into apartment #4 and you see a good looking man watching the guy in the first apartment filming his oral feat. Finally all of the scenes end with orgasmic conclusions including our john with the S&M Dominatrix Hooker shooting his load onto a Sydney Pollack-style painting where it strangely seems to fit in.At first the viewer is shocked, but isn't this really closer to real life than what is typically portrayed? It seemed refreshingly frank.It turns out that the man who was trying the acrobatic fellatio, James (Paul Dawson), has a gay lover, Jamie (P J DeBoy). His lover is very attached to him, but James is pushing away in the relationship, wanting more. James wants them to try an open relationship. The oriental lady, Sofia (Sook-Yin Lee) with the acrobatic lover on the piano, is a sex therapist who has been faking her orgasms with her lover and actually in fact had never had one in her life. James and Jamie come to her for sexual relationship advice and through that relationship they find Shortbus, a large home whose owner, Justin Bond, describes the place as, "You know school busses. This is the shortbus. This is a salon for the gifted and challenged!" It features a wide variety of environments, all equally bizarre, including a sex party room. There is a cabaret room, a lesbian bar, and a very diverse group of people including the former mayor of New York. In this environment all of the principle characters introduced in the opening scenes work on their sexual problems. Sofia hooks up with the S&M Hooker, Seve (Lindsay Beamish). As the hooker said, "I will help you discover how to have an orgasm and you can teach me how to have a real human interaction with someone." James and Jamie find Seth a handsome man for a three-way romance, and the voyeur even finds a relationship fulfilled. The film ends in a carnival atmosphere where the Cabaret vocalist is singing, "We all get it in the end," to the accompaniment of a marching polka band. Did I say the environment of Shortbus is a little bizarre?However, Shortbus is a dramatic story of sexual conflicts and people trying to solve them. I heartily recommend it. Actually I was in the hospital the first time I saw the film and it got my heart going again! Perhaps it will perform miracles for you as well.Gary Kaufman