Review of Shame (2011) by Axelkoch — 24 Feb 2014

Steve McQueen's second film is just as hard-edged and brutally honest as his outstanding debut Hunger and his phenomenal follow-up 12 Years a Slave, but in an entirely different way. In Shame, the British auteur explores a topic hardly ever discussed in the film industry, sexual addiction, and uses it as a means to create a brilliant character study with artistic visuals.

With very few things actually happening, Shame surely feels the longest of all of Steve McQueen’s films and, just as with Hunger and 12 Years a Slave, it’s probably going to take me quite some time to watch it again.

However, the film brings up a lot of interesting things to think about and is the most honest and dignified approach to the subject I could think of, thus making it something very worthy of checking out.