Directed by:
Steve McQueenCinematography:
Sean BobbittComposer:
Harry EscottCast:
Michael Fassbender, Carey Mulligan, James Badge Dale, Nicole Beharie, Jennifer Butler, Lucy Walters, Elizabeth Masucci, Alex Manette, Hannah Ware (more)VOD (4)
Plots(1)
Brandon is a 30-something man living in New York who is unable to manage his sex life. After his wayward younger sister moves into his apartment, Brandon's world spirals out of control. From director Steve McQueen, Shame is a compelling and timely examination of the nature of need, how we live our lives and the experiences that shape us. (Amazon Prime UK)
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Reviews (11)
Whether you wake up alone in the morning, next to a steady partner, or with someone different every day, Shame attacks the core of each of us. Brandon's behavior may start out as just a casual walk with various sexual undertones, but the last half hour takes all the psychological weight and throws it into the viewer's lap. The mental pain, which increasingly radiates from Michael Fassbender's eyes, didn't repel me or destroy me, but instead incredibly fascinated me. A film that only in the last seconds definitively proves how complex and deep it is.
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In this movie, the second most remarkable role appeared that I have seen this year. After Ryan Gosling in the movie Drive, now Michael Fassbender showed what a real acting performance is, for which he would deserve at least two Oscars. For his acting performance and the sacrifice he gave to the movie. This sacrifice is really SACRIFICE. Shame is an incredibly hard-hitting film. Psychologically demanding to watch, but all the more believable on the characters. It tells a classic story of how we complain when we don't have something and how we complain when we lack something, thrown into extremes. Excellent story, but you need to not be afraid and look at the topic of sex from a slightly different perspective...and most importantly, want to understand.
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Emotional deprivation, bandaged in vain with more than just casual sex, can never do anyone any good. I liked that Steve McQueen didn't mess around with it – he just took a knife, stuck it in the flesh, and gouged and gouged until the wound was so gaping it could hardly be healed. I am referring now to the overall feeling of the film and the really very "nice" fate of the main character. An attitude and a world in which love and moral principles have completely disappeared, leaving only something dubiously empty – physically satisfying for the first few tries, but utterly unable to quench the desperate thirst for mental satisfaction. In some ways, this is also how you could characterize the group of (a)socials (I deliberately did not say (a)social group) that Steve McQueen targets in his second film. Michael Fassbender is convincing and his acting is really excellent. Yet rather than being an "intimate and personal look at the life of a very sexually frustrated man", the whole film struck me as a parallel to Western, consumerist society that simply doesn't know what to do, so it seeks out all sorts of hobbies. Of course, it will be slightly more complicated in the end (I wouldn’t have it any other way, otherwise they wouldn't make dramas, only comedies :)) My point is more to suggest that even an ordinary bumpkin duo with below average incomes can be many times happier and more mentally balanced than many corporate elites. When you have money and a lean little apartment with an even leaner view in one of the busiest cities in the world, you just think about how and what way to escape boredom:)
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What has happened to us? We are crumbling under the pressure of the modern age, we pretend that nothing is happening and try to blend in with the crowd to survive, only to turn back into our real selves when we are alone in private. We turn into unstable individuals who don’t belong anywhere, with an inclination to... experiment. Shame deals with advanced sexual addiction and portrays a man in the final stage of decay, culminating with the arrival of his sister. And this results in a couple of scenes that are nightmarish for every brother. An absolutely precise acting performance by Michael Fassbender (where is that Oscar nomination?) draws you into the sleazy world of success, opportunity but also emptiness. With him, we observe mere silhouettes of people with whom he enters into relationships, either bed or work-related, we see his efforts to escape and failures accompanying such attempts. And even the punishments he gives himself for his failures. A very distinctive and slow-paced movie certainly not to everyone’s taste, or understanding, or even misinterpretation. If just for that unbelievably strong scene in the metro (the ravishing Lucie Walters) at the beginning of the movie it deserves all the stars.
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My low rating is not related to the shock of sexually explicit scenes or the lack of even minimal identification with the main character. It stems from the fact that Brandon was uninteresting to me from the beginning and I quickly felt from the film an artificially created situation and a superficial story. Simply put, I was bored and found the movie detached. Overall impression: 25%.
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