20th Philadelphia Film Festival – SHAME

by Le Anne Lindsay, Editor

Michael Fassbender has a Dirk Diggler size schlong!  And an Adonis rear-end. Beyond that, I don’t remember anything about the film Shame.  Just kidding. Well, about the film’s resonance, not about Fassbender.  In actuality, the film stayed with me for quite awhile.  Seeing two people in so much pain with no clue how to get relief, yet basically from the outside, look as if they are managing the day in and out of life.

Director Steve McQueen (Hunger), (why doesn’t he go by S. McQueen or use his middle name, Rodney or Stephen?) has created an intense character study of a sex addict without really having to go overboard on graphic content.  Not that there isn’t a lot of very visual sex scenes, but it’s not gratuitous. With that being said, it was still however, embarrassing to watch the film with so many senior citizens. The audience was very mixed in age and race; but I just happened to be sitting next to a group of grayed haired people to my left and right, making me grateful that movies take place in the dark.

I really don’t want to give too much away, it’s one of those films where you have to bring your own conclusion to what these two characters Brandon (Fassbender) and his sister Sissy (Carey Mulligan) have been through in their past to bring them to this place in their lives.

On both a food in film, and an ever watching to see good roles for African American women note: this restaurant scene of Brandon on a date with Marianne (Nicole Beharie) both lightens the mood and represents a momentary glimmer of hope for Brandon.

In terms of the production, Shame does a wonderful job of first conveying an appealing, sophisticated, uptown New York City feel in the beginning, and then slowly dissolves into a more gritty, desolate New York. Very subtle, but effective.  The scene depicted in the picture at the top, Brandon and Sissy’s with their backs to the camera, while waiting for a subway, is such a great shot and a touching exchange without being the least bit schmaltzy. There’s another scene with them shot in profile against a backdrop of Looney Tune cartoons that’s incredibly intense and should earn an Oscar nomination for them both.