Sex and Shame

<p> Brandon (Michael Fassbender) is a young professional of carefully composed surfaces. Every object is in place in his bare but expensive Manhattan apartment; he ties his winter scarf just so before venturing toward the subway. But under the jiffy clean exterior, Brandon harbors a dark obsession with sex as raw physical gratification and force of habit. He buys it from prostitutes, seeks it from coworkers and strangers in bars and in between encounters, he masturbates in the shower and even in the workplace toilet. Brandon's insatiable appetite brings little joy and increasing trouble. His boss (no angel himself) makes cutting remarks about the hardcore porn discovered on his Brandon's hard drive. Did an intern put it there? And one especially forward encounter with a woman at a bar results in a severe beating at the hands (and feet) of her boyfriend. </p> <p><em>Shame</em> (out on Blu-ray) is among the few films to rate an NC-17 for explicit sex and the graphic depictions feel integral to the lost-soul story they show. British director Steve McQueen (<em>Hunger</em>) sets this film amid hard, glossy surfaces with multiple mirrored reflections; many scenes suggest how Edward Hopper might have painted 21st century New York with their suggestions of separations between people and loneliness in crowded places. The city is often beautiful, sometimes lurid. McQueen moves the film forward with imaginatively unobtrusive editing, yet attention never strays far from Fassbender's gripping, damaged performance as a man locked in cold narcissism despite moments of despair and awareness. Much of Brandon's impoverished character is defined through his indifferently affectionate relations with his troubled younger sister (Carrie Mulligan). Rather than answer her desperate calls for help, he buys sex with a prostitute. </p> <p><em>Shame </em>took top prizes at the 2011 Venice Film Festival. </p>