Shame is the second feature film by British director Steven McQueen. The lead character, Brandon Sullivan, is portrayed by German actor, Michael Fassbender (also in A Dangerous Method this year), his sister Sissy Sullivan by Drive's Carey Mulligan and his boss David Fisher by Rubicon's James Badge Dale. The film received a NC-17 rating because of the explicit sexual content.
Brandon lives a double life, as a business man in modern-day NYC and as a sexual addict who can't control the time or space for his perverted behavior. Masturbation, cyber sex, downloading pornography at work or one night stands with total strangers are some of his daily activities. This becomes a problem when his sister Sissy, a free spirited lounge singer, crashes indefinitely in his apartment.
Fassbender's performance is groundbreaking and over the top. Mulligan's support acting is marvelous and compelling. The director creates an atmosphere of loneliness, desperation and hopelessness that captivates even the most difficult audience member. Aside of all full frontal nudity in some of the characters, the movie is much more than a softcore Cinemax-type. It explores human relationships between siblings of difficult upbringings, the two sides of the candy-coated corporate world, perverted lewd conduct and how humans react to sudden change of their routines.
McQueen has done a great job with his second effort. Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan, with back-to-back great performances in 2011-2012, are becoming Europe's new promises for the indie film making movement. 8 stars out of 10.
