38) SHORTBUS

Director: John Cameron Mitchell

Stars: Sook-Yin Lee, Raphael Barker, Paul Dawson, PJ DeBoy, Lindsay Beamish, Jay Brannan, Peter Stickles, Justin Bond

Year: 2006

Rating: UR

Shortbus is one of those films that affects you for awhile after seeing it. Set in New York City (with an amazing handmade diorama of the city that the film utilizes to show the action moving around different parts of town), the film follows a handful of people, both gay and straight, who are all in crisis mode of their relationships.

There's Sofia and Rob (Sook-Yin Lee and Raphael Barker), a happily married couple that engages in quite a bit of sex ... much of it in the hopes of getting Sofia to finally achieve orgasm, which she's never had. This is personally poignant for Sofia, as for her career she works as a couples counselor, trying to help people very much in her condition. Two of her clients are James and Jamie (Paul Dawson and PJ DeBoy), a monogamous gay couple of five years who are having issues because James now wants to bring a third guy into their lives sexually. The fact that Jamie has a stalker for a neighbor (Peter Stickles) potentially over-complicates things further. And then there is Severin (Lindsay Beamish), a dominatrix who has never really felt love herself.

All end up, at various times, at an exclusive underground club, Shortbus, where men and women come to openly explore their sexuality (and openly is an understatement; before the film is over you will see every manner of coupling, all in the most explicit way possible). Sofia's first trip to the club is a mind-blower for her - one she rejects openly, insulted by all she see - but eventually she even chooses to bring Rob back with her, in the hopes of each of them becoming more open with their sexuality (and, of course, so she can finally peak for the first time in her life).

The film is about what each of these people - people that, yes, we do grow to like and care about - get from Shortbus; how it enriches or affects each of their lives, and what happens after. The sex scenes (even an eyebrow-raising orgy), while 100% explicit and graphic, do not come across as pornography or even necessarily erotic; instead, they fit into the film like a puzzle piece, only coming off as an extension of the characters or what they face. And while a film like this could have been so predictable - each person goes to Shortbus and comes away with his or her life transformed/"fixed" - one of the best things about the film is that you can't always predict what will happen, or where things will go.

Funny, touching, romantic, and lighthearted yet sincere, Shortbus is a film that will turn off some due to its graphic sexual content - but so, so worth the ride as it will also touch something in the universal core of many who see it. Especially those secure in themselves and in what they need, both in bed and out, this is a wonderful film with so much more going on beyond what you see on-screen. ****1/2 - Reel Awesome-Reel Must-See