Brandon (Michael Fassbender) works for a viral marketing firm based out of New York. He has an amazing apartment with incredible views of the city. However, he’s an empty shell of a sex addict and can’t seem to quench his need to cum, as his prostate never appears to run dry.
Attractive and successful, he picks up on women and screws them like a bulimic might go through junk food, with just as much hollow passion. Fueled by his appetite, he’s all about the consumption with little regard to his relationship to the act. When he’s not fucking, he self-medicates with online pornography; hiring a prostitute isn’t beneath him (why go out, when you can order in?). When this all gets old, he might even try things that aren’t aligned with his nature. If it can get him off, it’s fair game, with no end in sight. Premature creases line Fassbender’s forehead as his relational dysfunction becomes more of a curse.
Without much family, his aimless younger sister Sissy (Carey Mulligan) drifts into his life against his preferences with her exposed roots and smeared mascara. She’s just as lost as he is; healthy relationships also evade her, but not because she gives too little. During a cabaret set, she sings a bluesy, haunting version of “New York, New York.” Moody and pensive, she almost makes you forget the two famous versions. The camera fixates on her in one of the film’s many long takes. Mulligan proves there’s more to her since her smashing star turn in An Education, having found herself in a series of subsequent roles trading on her trademark doe-eyed pain. “So good!” she gleefully shouts about her breakfast after exposing her whole nude self earlier in the film. She’s much more fun as a free spirit—fuck-up or otherwise.
Sissy seeks kinship outside of Brandon’s impenetrable emotional walls. McQueen’s decision to maintain an ambiguity between the siblings is a suggestive stroke in world with no answers. Often photographed from behind, we never get too close to their history as we often watch the backs of their heads. There is either something unspeakable that happened between them, to them or both, that can’t be understood by the audience or even the brother and sister themselves. Brilliantly, out of focus cartoons play at one point in the background as they almost share a true moment together.
Her entrance turns his life upside down. He’s the world’s most emotionally unavailable man whose sister’s invasion of his personal space drives him to cower like a little boy in the corner. At one point, sweet and sexy coworker Marianne (Nicole Beharie) propositions him and then sets up boundaries he finds challenging. After an awkward first date supplemented by an extremely nervous waiter, he has his One Chance at a full-fledged, meaningful connection. Thinking throwing away all of his porn will change his habits, he’s selfish to the core and it doesn’t even occur to him that a man who suffers from performance anxiety can still please a woman ready for action.
Inevitably, we get our climax, so to speak, with a tragic debaucherous night of sex accompanied by an overdone orchestral soundtrack. While Brandon doesn’t pretend to be the marrying kind, he also knows he’s spiraling downward at full-speed. McQueen looks for little revelations around every corner of his descent. While they’re not always fully-realized amongst the bouts of gratuitous sex, some of the carefully composed images linger like the opening shot of Fassbender mindlessly resting in his bed and a subway scene that conveys longing, desire and shame on a stranger’s face (a shorthand version of Diane Lane on Unfaithful’s train, if you will). McQueen knows how to make a pretty picture even if it’s not quite as meaningful as meaningless the life of his protagonist is.
Q & A
McQueen took to the stage for the Q&A following the N.Y.F.F. screening with producer Iain Canning and actors Michael Fassbender and James Badge Dale, who played Brandon’s philandering boss David. The script dates back to a conversation shared between director and star Fassbender three years ago. Once the project started, Fassbender envisioned a project that was more out there then what appeared on the screen. Yet, incidentally, the U.K. pushed away the filmmakers as the subject matter was to risqué, which led them to New York City. There, they found many organizations and “Brandon’s” to inform their film and an open-mindedness they surprisingly couldn’t find in London. Fassbender had an easier time getting people to talk about their sexual addictions through anecdotes rather than feelings, a tactic he could relate to as a storyteller. Yet, aside from ironically having a more prudish ratings board stateside, Fassbender believes that U.S. audiences and elsewhere don’t want to be spoon-fed stories.
McQueen sees Shame as a continuation of his first film, Hunger, one a tale of a man imprisoned by his flesh and another about a man trying to find freedom through his body. Completely oblivious to other films dealing with sexual addiction, he was moved by pure curiosity about how devastating sexual addiction can be—tricky subject matter that doesn’t have much mainstream attention. Having wrapped production for over a year, McQueen expressed gratitude at being able to come full circle with his film at N.Y.F.F.
Fassbender didn’t even consider parallels between his sexual addict Brandon and 19thA Dangerous Method, two roles broken up by his X-Men: First Class stint.
McQueen couldn’t comment on the sibling relationship other than everyone comes with their own baggage to the film and projects their own thoughts. I’m not even sure if it matters what happened, yet it’s clear that whatever did take place in their childhood has affected them both to harrowing degrees. McQueen chose “New York, New York,” as the song for cabaret singer Sissy to croon because her and her brother’s story was right there in the lyrics. It’s a seminal moment where they open up to each other emotionally; there’s an intimacy there between them, as well as with the city.
Of course, someone in the audience was going to ask about the sex scenes and Fassbender answered like any actor would: he was self-conscious and nervous like any regular person would be, and the filming was awkward. Mulligan also had a scene with Dale, which was miked-only, as we never see anything, only Brandon’s reaction. He spoke of taking risks and breaking boundaries.
McQueen revealed he doesn’t shoot with a storyboard. His collaborations with cinematographer Sean Bobbitt involve ritual. There is always a relationship with whatever is in the frame, finding a tension. He spoke of this being a story about a New Yorker who lives in the sky; reflection, especially involving metal, was very important. McQueen said editor Joe Walker is a genius who is also a musician, so it was all about rhythm and timing.
Box Office Prediction
A mix of curiosity and moral superiority may lead to low, but noticeably numbers. I say $5M. And, now, that it has the NC-17 rating, I imagine it doesn't have much more hope than that.
Oscar Outlook
The controversial subject matter and sexual content might be too much for the AMPAS, but if they loved Last Tango in Paris forty years ago, they must be able to consider this film. However, I say only Carey Mulligan for Best Supporting Actress. Many have been waiting for only a short-time for her second nomination, and, now, there is a performance that should give it to her. But, with the movie's NC-17, the scarlet rating could snip her chances.
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