Shortbus

After a while hesitating I watched Shortbus (2006) the other day. I really didn't have great expectations, my worry was that it would be a sort of bad film trying to make the most out of the publicity associated with having real sex in the film.

So out of curiosity and not having read anything particularly bad about I decided to watch it, partly, I must confess, because I was curious about the S&M scenes that were in the film.

The thing is that I quite liked it. It tells the story of a number of different people/couples completely unconnected except for a club called Shortbus where besides all the hot stuff going on derives its force from the sexual freedom that all the regulars seems to enjoy and the normality with which everyone takes everything from everyone else - something you can really feel while watching the film. The idea is probably a sort of 60's community brought up to date to the post 9/11 era.

Real sex scenes was a fairly innovative concept in non-port releases until recently but has now been used in a number of films recently and is starting to lose it's spark. The scenes are not gratuitous, they are an integral part to the story and they just make it feel more real. The way it's used in Shortbus just seems to work, it's not porn with close-ups and all but you do get to see everything... I just thought it works well.

There isn't as such much story, it's one of those films whose point seems to be the atmosphere and the feeling they try to portray. I definitely liked it but I can see why a lot of people wouldn't.

As for the S&M, well, not a lot really, not anything that will satisfy anyone who's actually into it.

Have you watched it? What did you think?