SHAME
4 out of 5 stars

so, basically this was an hour and 40 minutes of michael fassbender having sex? HOTT. :P

but seriously...this brandon sullivan character is in fact a sex ADDICT. he will have sex with anyone, anywhere, ANYTIME. brandon sullivan (michael fassbender) is...a very handsome, reserved thirtysomething tech firm/advertising agency exec, but deep down inside, he’s got something very nasty growing inside. his addiction to sex has lead him to masturbate frequently during work hours, has corrupted his hard drive due to the massive amounts of porn on it, and he invites escorts over to his sterile apt like they’re his best (sex) friends. (when he’s watching porn and eating leftover chinese with a beer like it’s some sitcom is hilarious to me b/c he’s so nonchalant about it...everydayroutine!) then one day, he comes down to his stereo blasting and someone singing in the shower... brandon grabs a baseball bat, runs furiously into the bathroom, and finds his sister sissy (a very hipster carey mulligan) scared silly! apparently she broke up with her BF mark, so she decided to crash at her big bro’s. too bad...this totally cramps brandon’s style. :P sissy invites brandon to come hear her sing at some caberet bar, and he and his slimey boss david attend. sissy ends up sleeping with said slimey boss IN BRANDON’S BED. this really puts brandon on edge, and basically it’s a down hill sexual spiral from there...

i totally had mixed feelings about this one, but ultimately settled on a 4 because the raw emotions that fassbender and carey mulligan exhibit come across as true and genuine. their anger, their frustration with one another, their sadness...all of that is very well exhibited and makes the movie wonderful. (the scene when sissy is singing is one of my faves as well as when they sit down and “talk” about their issues on the couch) brandon and sissy could not be so different characteristically! (brandon = cold, distant, self-loathing; sissy = warm, clingy, unconditional love for her brother) the only flaw i see in this though is why they didn’t explore the relationship between brandon and sissy more? was it incest? abuse? what’s the source of brandon’s addiction? also, what’s the source of their awkwardness towards one another? characters needed to be further developed esp. if this is going to be a story of a sex addict and his problems. otherwise, fassbender sure knows how to fuck a woman. or two... ;)