SHORTBUS

US, 2006, Colour.
Directed by John Cameron Mitchell)

Shortbus is a club in New York City where men and women gather – the theme is sexuality. This film focuses on a half dozen people who frequent the club, their lives and their sexual issues.

It is a film where one has to ask questions about ‘what’ is presented and ‘how’ it is presented. As regards ‘what’, all human topics are valid. It is looking at the ‘how’ that questions of sensitivities as well as moral issues arise.

John Cameron Mitchell made Hedwig and the Angry Inch some years ago. This time, he has workshopped characters and situations with actors and non-actors who responded to ads for auditions. He workshopped some emotionally extreme situations: a homosexual couple and the young man who joins them in their apartment, a dominatrix who is a photography artist and a married couple where the wife is a couples counsellor. While their behaviour might at first indicate otherwise, they are really unable to communicate emotionally or at depth.

They are presented in sexual behaviour which raises questions about the extent and limits of censorship of explicitly ‘hardcore’ behaviour. Since this is presented almost immediately in the film, audiences know where they sit – or whether they do not want to sit through the film. The ‘how’ here is the style of pornography – although the film does not aim for the effects of pornography. It is intended to be illustrative of character and situation rather than stimulating. Many of the sequences (especially the group scenes in the club) are rather exhibitionist.

The director mentions in interviews his strict Catholic upbringing, especially at a Benedictine boarding school in Scotland. This is a challenging piece of information since a number of prominent directors (Almodovar, Terence Davies and a number of Filipino directors) are homosexual and these issues are to the fore in their films, many bitter about their church experiences, others flaunting it so to speak. Some of these films are gay versions of the serious shadow lives of repressed Catholics as seen in the 1970s drama, Looking for Mr Goodbar.

While the performers workshopped their characters, they are not always credible in their talk and behaviour, especially the finale with the couples counsellor and her sexual journey. The other thing is that there is a camp sensibility that encourages a twee sentimentality in the treatment of characters that would seem far too much in a straight story.

On the whole Shortbus is not all that interesting. There are touches of humour but it often looks like an excuse to be daring and/or provocative.