John Cameron Mitchell's "Shortbus" works better as an experience than it does as a movie. Here is, without a doubt, the most sexually explicit movie in history. It probably deserves to be seen for this reason alone, if only so you can say, "Yes, I've seen 'Shortbus,'" a phrase which will acquire some cachet in the coming months due to the mini-controversy the film is probably going to cause.
A lot has been made about what America's reaction is going to be to "Shortbus," but, if anything, the reaction is going to be a non-reaction — the movie isn't serious-minded enough to cause any real controversy. The digitally shot film is a meandering, loosely plotted riff chronicling the sex lives of nearly a dozen New Yorkers, all of whom are linked together in the most perfunctory of ways. It's like "Crash," but with less screaming and more sex. Lots and lots of sex.
Writer-director Mitchell takes a playful approach, which is probably for the best; it will allow his film to avoid any real controversy. Incidentally, this may be the biggest problem with the movie. Mitchell is so eager to let the audience know everything is a goof that he lets us off the hook. I'm not going to use this space to get into an argument about the morality of any specific sexual behavior, but I think we can all agree that sex, no matter who it is between, means something. The sex in "Shortbus" is as perfunctory and meaningless as it is in any blockbuster. This would not be a fatal flaw, except for the fact that "Shortbus" is all sex and, once the shock value wears off, none of it is all that interesting, leaving us to wonder when Mitchell is going to get around to making a point. He never does, thinking, I suppose, the shock value of the material is enough to sustain his film. It isn't.
The performances are good enough but they are all adrift, in search of a more interesting movie. There are some successful turns. Lindsey Beamish is revelatory as a dominatrix trying to come to terms with her own personal failings, and as one half of a gay couple on the downswing of a long-term relationship, and newcomer PJ DeBoy brings a brilliant mix of humor and pathos to his character. Beamish and DeBoy are the best things in the movie, and it is a tactical mistake on the part of Mitchell that his roving eye doesn't take the time to focus more on them as characters.
Is "Shortbus" worth seeing? Maybe, maybe not. Controversy alone doesn't make a movie important, or even memorable. (How often do you find yourself thinking about Antonia Bird's "Priest"? Exactly.) I'm struggling to come up with a good reason to tell anybody to go out and spend two hours sitting in a theater for this movie, especially in a fall movie season as good as the one we find ourselves in the middle of. By the end of this movie, things feel more like a bad one-night stand than a full-bodied film-going experience.
Grade: 2.5 out 5
