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Shame (2011)

Director: Steve McQueen (ii)

Time Out rating

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72 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

The British artist Steve McQueen stormed the film world in 2008 with ‘Hunger’, his film about the death of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands. His second film, ‘Shame’, sees Michael Fassbender as a New York bachelor who has a complicated relationship with his sexuality and Carey Mulligan as the younger sister who imposes a rare visit on his Manhattan life. It’s a slightly more conventional film than ‘Hunger’ (no extended floor-washing scenes here) but no less courageous or probing in its investigation of the extremes of human behaviour.

You may hear this described as a film about sex addiction, but that makes ‘Shame’ sound like an ‘issue’ film, which it isn’t. It’s a character study about a man whose sex drive is an outlet for unspoken, unknown agonies. Fassbender is Brandon, a casually slick, charming but reticent man who lives alone in an ordered, characterless flat and works in an aggressively male corporate environment. Away from the stark routines of his working life, he enjoys random encounters with women (and, once, a man), hires prostitutes, indulges in porn and masturbates at work. His ease masks troubles at which this story, set over just a few days, only hints.

McQueen frames episodes in Brandon’s life in a steely, unflinching style, neither gratuitous nor coy. He takes us into various bedrooms and under various sheets but sidesteps eroticism even when bums and breasts are bouncing furiously. There are scenes of startling intensity, such as when Brandon catches the eye of a stranger on a train and we follow their intricate rush-hour flirtation or when we catch him jogging through the city in a single shot. There’s one virtuoso sequence in which McQueen cuts between a fight outside a bar, its aftermath and the flirty encounter that precipitates it.

Brandon’s volatile sister, Sissy (Mulligan), comes to stay, and their relationship is awkward. She thinks nothing of taking Brandon's married work colleague (James Badge Dale) back to her brother’s apartment and bed. Brandon holds her at a distance, yet Sissy crawls under his duvet at night seeking comfort (he screams at her to leave), and when she disturbs him wanking in his bathroom he rushes out in anger and leaps on her, naked apart from a towel around his waist. Mulligan has a mesmerising scene in which she sings a slow version of ‘New York, New York’ in a city bar and McQueen lingers long on her face. You imagine that she and Brandon shared a trauma as kids – but imagining is all we can do. McQueen gives little away. He wants us to judge behaviour not backstories.

The film leaves us with a sense of cycles repeating. There’s a welcome absence of closure, although it’s a shame McQueen and writer Abi Morgan are not bold enough to leave Brandon and Sissy’s immediate story hanging in the same way: they round off with an event that is too conclusive for the film that precedes it. An alternative, subtler climax lies tantalisingly close.

That might trouble in the moment, but it doesn’t sink the film. Far from it. Like ‘Hunger’, ‘Shame’ is interested in the stark immediacy of one man’s world and drawing us into that world without easy explanations. It’s a work that feels, both for our times and of them. It reconfirms McQueen as a filmmaker with an unflinching, microscopic gaze on the world.

Author: Dave Calhoun

Time Out London Issue 2160: January 12 – 18, 2012

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User reviews of this film

Pursuivent said...

Posted on May 27 2012 18:02 Are you all kidding? The script was lacking, there was no viable narrative and the acting was atrocious.
This is nothing less than a little pervert of a writers fantasy.
For god sake don't pay for this dross, it's just a little something to give the pointless critics something to bore everyone with.
This meaningless poop of a film was a bit like waiting for a fish to sneeze!

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Selena said...

Posted on May 25 2012 02:13 I thought the movie was brilliant. I do have one question for anyone who can answer.. What do you guys think the film was trying to say about marriage? There was several emphases on marriage; (i.e showing the woman on the trains wedding ring, his talk on the date about marriage, the anger he showed towards his sister for sleeping with his married boss) I'm interested to hear what anyone thinks of this!

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Marko said...

Posted on Apr 29 2012 00:22 Just saw this film tonight.
I hadn't read anything about it beforehand just had heard of the film title. I have to say it blew me away. Am a little disappointed about some of the negative comments but each to their own. The sex scenes are part of the film and part of its beauty illustrating the intensities of the feelings of Brandon.
What is more memoriable to me is the music score how beautifully it is woven I to the whole film just so perfectly. The last 25 mins of the film doesnt have dialogue with haunting music that depicts the emyotion and intensities of the main character from soothing to manic to soothing to self loathing.
The whole film can be summed up in one simple line for me
'We're not bad people. We just come from a bad place' (Sissy)
The cinematography is just gorgeous too.
I have to say this is the best surprise film I have seen in a long time. One of those that just hits you so so hard when least expecting it.
I expect the Freud students may have different views of this film.
Well thank you Mr McQueen the cast and crew for such a thought provoking masterpiece.

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Jill said...

Posted on Apr 26 2012 22:00 It is clear everyone here is not artistic or thoughtful enough to enjoy this film.

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Sylvia S said...

Posted on Apr 26 2012 19:48 What are we to believe .. I know for sure half of us are still up in the trees! Mindless sex ... what could be more unsatisfying? Glad I did not waste money seeing this in a movie house. Truly awful .. sure there must have been an awful childhood but that is no excuse for him giving into his addiction .. and not fun to observe ... and what is the point of this film I ask? Can anyone tell me???

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julyienn taylor said...

Posted on Apr 22 2012 23:29 The movie started out good, until the bathroom scene with him staring at his naked sister and her not trying to cover herself. I think Brandon's problem has something more to do with his past growing up with his sister...

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Westport said...

Posted on Apr 22 2012 12:22 I agree that this filmed captured NYC properly. The subway scenes, the apartment, the bars. My favorite scene was the one at what I am pretty sure is the Park Side where he describes what he would do to the girl at the bar. My issues was I had no idea what this movie was about and I watched on my Ipad on the plane back from LA to NY. I couldn't tell whether he soccer mom next to me was into it or thought I was a perv.

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Jill said...

Posted on Apr 21 2012 00:33 Such a beautifully ambiguous and depressing. The best film of 2011 after Melancholia. Unbelievable cinematography. The score was also brilliant. It was cerebral and touched on the incestual jealousy of a man attempting to repeatedly eradicate his love for his sister through loveless sex. Cannot say enough amazing things about this film. Honestly everyone must see this movie. The emotion is realistic and torturously difficult to watch and not feel sympathetic to Brandon.

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mo said...

Posted on Apr 20 2012 21:08 You mean you've not seen 'Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives,' or 'The Headless Woman'? At least you've only wasted a couple of hours of your life!

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William said...

Posted on Apr 20 2012 15:51 This was simply one of the worst movies I have ever seen.

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Joe said...

Posted on Apr 15 2012 09:35 Weird...crazy... guy, I do not understand why he is unhappy while at the same time he can sleep with any beautiful woman... life is not just about sex there is so many other things he can do in this world ... the way i look at it, the character emphazised too much on his own personal ..crazy problems... this guy should meet a phschiatric to learn how to enjoy himself...

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scrumpyjack said...

Posted on Mar 11 2012 05:41 A man ripped apart by guilt, Michael Fassbender does an EXCELLENT job...but the coldness is ott and LEAVING LAS VAGAS covered the same ground with aplom. Porn though? You lads buy some pretty unexciting shit!
go see...flawed? oh yes, but not fatally. well done

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Brian said...

Posted on Mar 04 2012 16:21 Being upset at the lack of redemption says more about you, the viewer that it does about the film.

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Bill said...

Posted on Mar 03 2012 16:57 We know 2 things about the lead characters' pasts. They're siblings and Irish immigrants. So our theme is sex addiction, sex, self loathing, and there is no redemption. The characters are flat. Seems like porn. No redemption for this movie.

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Steveb said...

Posted on Feb 28 2012 22:36 Great Film! The camera looks it's not showing. A great exploration into addiction. Fassbenders performance is by far the best of the year and outstanding performance, possibly one of the best performances of the past decade.

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