Review – Shortbus

On the surface this comes across as what one might imagine if Robert Altman had directed hard-core pornography. However, that general description sells the experience short a bit. Director John Cameron Mitchell does a better job here than he did with the exasperating Rocky Horror wannabe Hedwig and the Angry Inch. And I do want to support the idea of integrating explicit sex into dramatic narrative productions. Graphic violence has been okay with Hollywood for decades. So why is graphic sex such a no-no? This movie helps blaze that trail, and for that we should all be grateful. Now we need another group of gutsy film-makers to come along and make a movie with the Shortbus aesthetic but a better script. A movie about New Yorkers with relationship problems just isn’t all that interesting no matter how kinky it is. Mildly amusing