MIT Lecture Series Committee

unrated
101 minutes

Shortbus (2006)

FREE admission!

WARNING: Shortbus contains many sexually explicit scenes. This film is unrated, but may not be appropriate for all viewers.

Writer/director John Cameron Mitchell follows up the cult classic Hedwig and the Angry Inch with another salacious slice of sex-laden cinema. Mitchell interweaves three separate tales of highly sexed and sexually frustrated New Yorkers, all of whom find some kind of salvation at an underground club named Shortbus. Anything goes at Shortbus--wild orgies between people from different ages, backgrounds, and sexual preferences are treated as commonplace, and most of the sex scenes shot through Mitchell's voyeuristic lens are completely unsimulated. Mitchell allows little time for his audience to pause for breath, opening Shortbus with a frantic collage of copulation and carnality that features most of his central characters. These include Sofia (Sook-Yin Lee), a sex therapist who has never reached full orgasm; gay couple James (Paul Dawson)--who begins the movie by fellating himself--and Jamie (PJ DeBoy); and Severin (Lindsay Beamish), a dominatrix who finds herself unable to find true love. [www.rottentomatoes.com]

I would like to commend Mitchell for making a warm, funny and very human film about people who don't just want sex but want to enjoy sex with someone they love. What a concept!
      -- Beth Accomando, kpbs.org. Read this review.