A summertime question for Eugene Hernandez.

Without a doubt the most surprising movie I've seen this year was one I watched on the first weekend of the Cannes Film Festival: John Cameron Mitchell's Shortbus. At indieWIRE, we'd been tracking the film since even before it was first publicly announced and, over the past year, buzz about the movie intensified as many began to wonder where and when it might finally have its world premiere. Insiders wondered whether JCM's follow-up to Hedwig and the Angry Inch, which promised graphic sex scenes, would simply end up being an arty porn flick. I've now seen the film twice and would instead characterize it as one of the boldest and most original new independent movies I've seen in quite awhile.

John Cameron Mitchell and the cast of Shortbus have made a sexually explicit, strikingly artistic and ultimately hopeful new film that is the story of a group of New Yorkers - straight and gay, male and female - coping with life and love in the modern big city. They come together weekly at a polysexual, bohemian Brooklyn salon that features music, art and, yes, sex. Full of heart and humanity, the film will certainly stir conversation, and perhaps some controversy, due to its graphic scenes. But Shortbus is about so much more. It succeeds as both a joyful celebration and a powerful outcry during a particular moment of increasing repression and conservatism.

Posted by dwhudson at August 9, 2006 2:43 AM