Shame

Whether you wake up alone in the morning, next to a steady partner, or with someone different every day, Shame attacks the core of each of us. Brandon's behavior may start out as just a casual walk with various sexual undertones, but the last half hour takes all the psychological weight and throws it into the viewer's lap. The mental pain, which increasingly radiates from Michael Fassbender's eyes, didn't repel me or destroy me, but instead incredibly fascinated me. A film that only in the last seconds definitively proves how complex and deep it is. (28.07.2012)

My low rating is not related to the shock of sexually explicit scenes or the lack of even minimal identification with the main character. It stems from the fact that Brandon was uninteresting to me from the beginning and I quickly felt from the film an artificially created situation and a superficial story. Simply put, I was bored and found the movie detached. Overall impression: 25%. (19.02.2018)

Step by step toward self-destruction. To live for oneself. Without commitments and without meaning. We can’t take off the mask of cynicism, love doesn’t exist and sex ruins us. I basically agree with McQueen and I find it pleasing that he did not in any way soften his cold-blooded observational style, when he works with the human body as an objet d’art rather than as a vessel containing emotions, which break through to the surface only a few times and seemingly by mistake. Brandon otherwise thoroughly resists emotion and thanks only to his sister, the sole person for whom he truly feels anything (perhaps responsibility), he realises how fragile his protective shell is. He stubbornly (and with devastating consequences) refuses to accept his own vulnerability. There is no room for that in his world of strictly defined rules. With the exception of the condensed and riveting introduction and climax, the boldly long shots are unpleasant in that for most of the time they do not adopt the point of view of any of the characters, who thus do not tell the story, but are studied. The aim of this “unempathetic” means of filming is not verism (or voyeurism), however. On the contrary, the composition of the shots betrays a well-thought-out plan. Brandon and Sissy complement each other in a given shot, as if they are two faces of a single person (alongside the close-up of Brandon’s face in the bar, for example, his sister’s singing fills the empty space). With admirable effort, Fassbender continues to work at not being pigeonholed as another dime-a-dozen pretty boy. If anything, his mental and physical full frontal makes him a hope for the porn industry rather than a heart-throb. Nevertheless, the film itself is not pornographic. It isn’t provocative due to the extent of the nudity that it contains, but due to the naturalness with which it approaches human sexuality; it doesn’t try to elicit in viewers a feeling of shame over the nude human body. Pointing out the normality of sex and nudity suggests that Brandon’s abnormality doesn’t consist (only) in his obsession with sexual gratification. That is just one of the many symptoms of the disease of indifference from which society as a whole suffers. Appendix: As with Hunger,  I don’t want to see McQueen’s second film again anytime soon. Shame is devastating not only for the protagonist, but also for the viewer. 85% (08.02.2012)

This film showcases one of the most powerful performances I’ve seen all year. After Ryan Gosling’s standout role in Drive, Michael Fassbender takes the spotlight here, delivering a performance so raw and committed, he deserves at least two Oscars—one for acting and another for the sheer dedication he brought to the role. Shame is a tough film to digest. It’s psychologically demanding, but that makes the characters all the more believable. The story touches on the familiar theme of how we complain about what we lack, only to struggle when we finally have it—pushed to an extreme. It’s a brilliant narrative, but you need to be open to seeing sexuality from a different perspective and, most importantly, willing to understand. (20.08.2012)

What has happened to us? We are crumbling under the pressure of the modern age, we pretend that nothing is happening and try to blend in with the crowd to survive, only to turn back into our real selves when we are alone in private. We turn into unstable individuals who don’t belong anywhere, with an inclination to... experiment. Shame deals with advanced sexual addiction and portrays a man in the final stage of decay, culminating with the arrival of his sister. And this results in a couple of scenes that are nightmarish for every brother. An absolutely precise acting performance by Michael Fassbender (where is that Oscar nomination?) draws you into the sleazy world of success, opportunity but also emptiness. With him, we observe mere silhouettes of people with whom he enters into relationships, either bed or work-related, we see his efforts to escape and failures accompanying such attempts. And even the punishments he gives himself for his failures. A very distinctive and slow-paced movie certainly not to everyone’s taste, or understanding, or even misinterpretation. If just for that unbelievably strong scene in the metro (the ravishing Lucie Walters) at the beginning of the movie it deserves all the stars. (18.03.2012)