Shame

When it comes to getting girls, Michael Fassbender is like a shark. When he sees a girl he likes, he will do anything to catch her. This is because he has a sex addiction, or at least his character Brandon Sullivan does in his latest film, Shame. This is the second time team up between Fassbender and director Steve McQueen, their last film being Hunger which I reviewed last week. Hunger was a good film, but Shame is a really good film!

The film follows Brandon Sullivan in New York as he tries to manage his sex addiction. When his sister Sissy moves in to his apartment, Brandon's world spirals out of control. Let me warn you though, this is not a film to watch with your parents. There is quite a bit of nudity in this film, it is about sex addiction after all. This is not done in a 'sexy' way, this film tries to show the audience the how dangerous and un-sexy Brandon's addiction is.

The acting in this film is superb! This is Michael Fassbender's best role to date and he really gives it his all, unfortunately he was still denied his deserved Oscar nomination. The role of Brandon's sister Sissy, is played by the incredible Carey Mulligan. The actress has taken Hollywood by storm recently, she has come a long way since her short role in Doctor Who. Mulligan is so good you will forget who you are watching, she plays the vulnerable and bit of a dirtbag role perfectly. And then there is James Badge Dale, most recently seen in the mini series epic The Pacific, his role is also spot on as the over confident, sleezy boss and mate of Brandon.You will be seeing a lot more of him soon as well, as he has just been cast in Iron Man 3.

The soundtrack to this film was also great and gave the audience a heightened sense of emotion during certain scenes. The music was created by a man named Harry Escott. There is one scene where Brandon goes for a midnight run accompanied by some classical music, the scene looks and sounds great!

The only flaw to this movie is the nudity. I realise that some was needed to shock the audience and allow them to learn the horrors of sex addiction, but some of the scenes are slightly uncomfortable. There is sex scene near the end of the film which goes on for too long and makes for an uncomfortable viewing. Maybe this is what McQueen was trying to make us feel by using this scene, but personally this is not how I want to feel whilst watching a film.

Apart from that though, this film is brilliant. Much better then Hunger and you will also see Fassbender in his best role, and he has been in a lot of good ones! It seems Fassbender and McQueen do not shy away from controversial subjects when it comes to making films, if they are to do another film together I am sure it will be just as shocking as the last two. Shame is out on DVD and Blu-Ray now, so I recommend you watch it, just be careful who you watch it with!

I have been giving the films a rating out of 5 on the left hand side of my blog for short while now, so I am also going to incorporate this rating into my reviews. I am giving Shame  a rating of: 4/5

Thanks for reading!

Hunger

With the release of Shame on DVD, I thought it would be best to catch up on the last film made by Steve McQueen, as I am really looking forward to watching his latest. His last film was Hunger which stars the brilliant Michael Fassbender. The film is set in 1981 and follows the event of the IRA hunger strike led by prisoner Bobby Sands.

Fassbender plays Bobby Sands and it doesn't look as if he took to the role likely. I'm not sure how much of Bobby Sands body was actually a skinny Fassbender or how much was make up effects but I'm pretty sure it was a bit of both.

The acting though is superb from all the cast, even the ones which don't get any dialogue to say, which was most of them. Hunger was like that though, more style than acting, it could have been a silent film if it wasn't for a 17 minute long scene of a conversation between Bobby Sands and a priest. I applaud the director in the choice of putting that scene in though, most films would not be able to pull this off, and neither would this one if it wasn't for the great dialogue and Fassbender's acting skills.

I was unsure throughout most of this film who the main character was though. It is Fassbender's film after the first half but before that we dip in and out of other characters lives, I am assuming this was to get all the different sides of the story but because we only get short stints of each person it feels kind of short changed.

Though what this does do is allows us as the audience not to sympathise with any of the characters. As many of the audience will not be able to feel for the IRA prisoner beforehand and side with the guards but here you get to see that everyone was in the wrong.

This film is not for everyone though, it is more art house than mainstream and many critics have called it an 'artistic masterpiece'. The film is very gruesome and is not for the faint hearted, the guards and prisoners are violent and some do some pretty disgusting things.

I however did like this film, although slow in places the style and acting was very good. When the dialogue did set in some great stories were told. This was a good a film and I can't wait to see what the McQueen and Fassbender team up have done with Shame. The pair certainly have a love for hard hitting subject matters with this film being about hunger strikes and Shame being about sex addiction. This film is not for everyone but if you want to see some great film making in progress then this is the film for you.

Thanks for reading!