Review of Shortbus (2006) by Brian R — 12 Mar 2013

Dick Cavett once asked Orson Welles if a filmmaker has ever made a pornographic masterpiece and Welles replied..."I think it can only be a masterpiece of Pornography but not a masterpiece which was pornographic. In other words...if what you're after is to excite people sexually, over excite them or stimulate them, then it should be possible to make a film which is exciting and is therefore a masterpiece of excitation. But you cannot make a film masterpiece which is pornographic because the material is antipathetic to the film. You can get as dirty as you want but not also excite ppl because exciting ppl during the course of a story, exciting them sexually is changing the subject so completely that you have no more narrative form".

I think that is what John Cameron Mitchell tried to do for his film Shortbus but completely lost on the narrative. It tries to be one thing but completely fails on the other. It's flat out pornographic and then tries to tell to many stories but doesn't succeed. To bad, maybe if the sexual hippies didn't make sex such a BIG issue they would still be happier with better things in life has to offer.