Review of Shortbus (2006) by Ali S — 18 May 2008

I've had the most difficult time writing this review. I can't quite capture what I want to say about this film and I can't quite make up my mind how I feel about it. At first, I gave it 3 stars but today, after watching some of it over again, I'm moving it up to 4 stars.

The more I think about it, the more impressed I am with the filmmakers ability to walk that line between pornography and art and land firmly on the side of art.

I can appreciate how he used sex as a symbol. We don't often think of sex in terms of a symbolic action/identity. Instead, sex is usually seen as a very straightforward physical manifestation of varied inward feelings or desires.

The long and short of it is that this movie is powerful. It draws you into the life of three characters who have trouble letting "the other" in. While I think Freud would be right in his glory with this group of people, it goes beyond a mere psychological study of the human being to bring us an artistic piece likely to move and challenge its viewer.

I have a feeling I'll be revisting Shortbus more in the future. I know that its graphic nature is necessary to go where the filmmaker wants to take us but, in a way, I wish it was less graphic so that more people would give it a watch and be taken to that place where social norms are torn down and healthy senses of sef are rebuilt.

P.S. I'm going to have trouble listening to Definitely Not The Opera from now on. I've seen all Sook-Yin Lee's nasty bits.