Shortbus (2006) written/directed by John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) is truly not for the easily offended. It is the film like nothing I've seen before and I've seen many films. It should be named Real Sex and the City or Every Thing You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask had not the latter title been taken already by Woody Allen. Actually you don't have to ask anything - you will get more information and graphic answers that you ever would hope for. This is the film where the graphical sex scenes are in abundance, they are extremely explicit. John Cameron Mitchell means business, and he gets down to it. By his own words,

"In the old days, when you couldn't show sex on film, directors like Hitchcock had metaphors for sex (trains going into tunnels, etc). When you can show more realistic sex, the sex itself can be a metaphor for other parts of the character's lives. The way people express themselves sexually can tell you a lot about who they are. Some people ask me, "couldn't you have told the same story without the explicitness?" They don't ask whether I could've done Hedwig without the songs. Why not be allowed to use every paint in the paint box?" John Cameron Mitchell

But after the initial shock, you realize that there are ideas, feelings, the attempt to understand the important things - what do we want? What is sex for us? How to understand ourselves first of all, how to communicate your desires, how to fulfill them? Shortbus is totally honest; it does care about its characters, and tells their stories of struggling with all sorts of existential difficulties, sexual or not, without condescending, with the equal dozes of sweetness, wit, and understanding. The film was made by a talented filmmaker. The beginning scenes would certainly grab your attention while introducing a viewer to few New Yorkers whose lives will be intertwined later. The music score and the songs are nice and set a melancholic mood, they provide a welcomed rest for the passengers on the Shortbus. The cast that consists mainly of non-professional first time performers, did a convincing job. It is not porn, it is an independent dra-medy that uses sex scenes to answer many questions about life.

The DVD includes the documentary Gifted and Challenged: The Making of 'Shortbus'. I found the Making... quite interesting and a lot of fun.

Shortbus reviewed by Sam Osborn

I have a bad feeling that after the first ten minutes of Shortbus are through, much of the audience will have already left; because within this first segment, sophomore director John Cameron Mitchell has the mind to show his audience the nature of this very, ahem…frank work. Audiences will have witnessed filmed masturbation, wild fornication in a myriad of poses, and a scene of S&M sexual nature. These are all acts we've seen before from other Hollywood pictures; but then again, those pictures only played pretend. Shortbus requires all its actors to do such acts for real.

Is Porn too strong a word to describe such a film? It's debatable, I suppose. Films that boast actual penetration are usually not found in theatres anymore; instead hidden in the back of your video rental stores, or placed neatly on a shady internet site. But Pornography uses plot mechanisms only to drive the story into another sex scene. Shortbus has plot mechanisms to drive the arcs of its characters. That its characters all play roles indulgent in fornication is simply the nature of Shortbus' stories. But enough about the ethics of Shortubus; it's a good film. And if you're not too squeamish for the subject matter, and have a mind for tongue-in-cheek wit, then it shouldn't matter how close to porn the film means to aim.

It's a story of New Yorkers. A fringe group of New Yorkers who all meet at the underground lounge Shortbus. It's a place of casual frivolity, where people of any sexual preference are free to indulge in whatever they please. They mingle and dance and drink and have sex, all happily and without any semblance of filth or vice. These people are simply enjoying themselves and being quite hilarious while they do it. The members that we're asked to follow all come from the Magnolia school of connections, where links between characters are often coincidental and illogical, but acceptable as obligations of an ensemble drama. Sofia (Sook-Yin Lee) is a Sex Therapist who prefers to be called a Couples Councilor and who's unable to have an orgasm. She's invited to Shortbus by the club's poster child couple, Jamie and Jamie (Paul Dawson and PJ DeBoy), who assure Sofia that if there's an orgasm to be found, it's hidden within Shortbus. In a dark room there, Sofia meets Severina (Lindsay Beamish), a lonely dominatrix who gets mean when uncomfortable, and whose longest relationship was with the geeky trust fund sexual deviant.

All their stories are all human and kind of affecting, managing to dig their way out of the film's heaping shock factor to create something like empathy. It's nothing heartbreaking or particularly inspiring, but how much can we really expect from a film that has an entire scene dedicated to the National Anthem being sung into an anal orifice. But that's the charm of Shortbus, I suppose. Director/Writer John Cameron Mitchell has made a film more explicit than most pornography while keeping eroticism completely out of the equation. The film's sexuality is frank and the humor always constant, while avoiding jokes that patronize its cast of outsiders.

It's too easy to forget the poignancy of Shortbus, though. The dialogue that's sure to be shot wild by its release won't be about its humor or spirit; talk will be of the skin that was exposed in finding the better, realer bits. It's too bad, but, again, what can we expect from a film that sings the National Anthem into a man's anus? Rating: 3 out of 4

Samuel Osborn