Shame – Steve McQueen Review

There was a lot to expect from the latest project from director Steve McQueen and man of the moment Michael Fassbender after their Bobby Sands biopic, ‘Hunger’, was so well critically received in 2008. Their latest effort, ‘Shame’, looks at the world of sex addiction and self-harming; it centres on Brandon (Fassbender), a successful suave business man whose obsession with sex is slowly ruining his life, making him void of all forms of emotions and personal attachments. His life as a sex maniac is suddenly turned upside down by the return of his sister and fellow screw-up, Sissy (Carey Mulligan), who has came to New York to follow her dream of becoming a successful singer.

Both siblings clearly have troubled pasts and deep underlying issues which they both seem unwilling to discuss with anyone, including the audience. Whilst Brandon escapes from his personal pain with meaningless sex, prostitutes, a hard-drive full of porn and a lot of masturbation, Sissy is equally as vulnerable but shows it through self-harm and casual, yet in a way less maniac than Brandon, sex.

The film is stylishly sordid, even the pornographic scenes are sleek and technically sound; they could have easily bordered on gratuitous, but are not at any point detrimental to the story or the characters. It was a justified decision that paid off as it necessarily shows the two damaged characters in their raw states, completely stripped down. Brandon’s sex addiction is clearly a form of self-punishment, an easy route to auto destruction. This becomes apparent in the sex scenes as you see his lack of any kind of enjoyment or pleasure; this then accumulates in a Crimax[i] during a three-way sex scene. His blatant and desperate addiction for meaningless sex with just anyone even leads him to a dark room in a gay sex club

Taking Fassbender’s character  to a gay sex club was an interesting way to take the sex addiction character, shown as a logical alternative way to get his fix when he couldn’t go to his usual straight joints. It was notably also the only point in the film where Brandon lost the control and power in terms of sex, essentially  the predator became the prey.

Unlike the famous quote from Huis Clos ‘Hell is other people’, for Brandon, Hell is definitely himself. He appears to have created and moulded himself around his own personal hell, a form of self punishment which allows himself to be void of any emotions, friendships, relationships and meaning. His one attempt at becoming free from his metaphorical chains is his date with co-worker Marianne (Nicole Beharie). The date results in an incredibly awkward experience for Brandon, Marianne but also the audience. The whole date comes in one long awkward take with good performances throughout, especially the waiter; yet the audience cannot help but to want something positive to come out from it for Brandon. When they eventually head back to his place, Brandon shamefully realises he’s unable to have sex with anyone he cares about and falls back into the dark oblivion of being a sex maniac.

He has no personal bonds with any one until his sister comes back, his only form of friendship comes from his boss Dave (James Badge Dale) who seem to have a silent arrangement together that in exchange for Dave keeping quiet about Brandon’s  dirty porn-filled hard-drive at work, Brandon becomes his wing-man on nights out. James Badge Dales’ performance as the goofy yet sleazy Dave provides a well deserved bit of light relief humour in an otherwise dark and morbid film.

The beauty of Shame is it has the ability to be both incredibly personal and painstakingly distant at the same time in everything from the cinematography to the relationships between the characters and the self-punishing traits of both Brandon and Sissy. Brandon is often presented in his lonely and isolated state at the edge of a frame or as the focus of a solo long distance tracking shot through the streets of Manhattan.  These shots do a fantastic job of creating an image of solitude for Brandon in one of the busiest cities in the world where he appears destined to continue on journey of self-destruction and become forever forgotten.

Sissy and Brandon’s relationship can only be described as complicated; Brandon is completely on edge after she moves in with him and they seem to only push each other further away from themselves, and they seem to have an inability to discuss real thing and emotions; something that Sissy points out herself. Despite this, both these two characters are still extremely close, sometimes slightly uncomfortably close for the audience as they both tendencies to walk in on each other either naked or masturbating. There also appears to be a lack of boundary between the two as Sissy is more than comfortable to shag Brandon’s boss in Brandon’s own bed then straight away go cuddle with her brother afterwards in the very same bed.

In fact, throughout the film it was hard not to think that McQueen was going down the incestuous route with Sissy and Brandon, as until the end the viewers are left to ponder over the true reasons behind their self-destructive nature with only small hints about the past given at any time. To be fair, if you had only seen the movie posters and trailers before going into seeing the film, you could easily have thought that Sissy and Brandon’s relationship was of a sexual context rather than a family based one. Both characters were a little too comfortable seeing each other naked.

The most heart-breaking scene is Sissy’s performance of ‘New York, New York’, the one lone moment during the entire film that the two characters show their true emotions. Sissy’s soulful performance and Brandon’s lack of composure complement each other in this touching scene; these, alongside McQueen’s usage of extended long shots, give it a very intimate feel.  You can feel Sissy’s pain when she’s singing about New York and ‘making it there’; she’s not only singing about her failed singing career but also her failed attempts to move on  and get over her past demons. The clear misery in her voice also present the lyrics, usually known for their optimism, in a new darker light.

“We’re not bad people, we just come from a bad place” – this remark from Sissy is the only insight into their past and only just hints at the reasons behind all their mental and physical suffering, yet even that remark didn’t need to be said. McQueen does an excellent job of telling his stories with unspoken words. ‘Shame’ is as seductive and powerful as you would imagine it to be, full of complex, disturbed and intense characters and sensational cinematography. It is also a powerful cinematic experience as the viewer is taken deep into the unchartered realm of a sex maniac, we’re invited into his most private intimate moments yet also his cold isolation. As a film, it strangely enough leaves you feeling slightly more secure with our own personal sex lives than before, but more importantly it just leaves you agonisingly frustrated with the characters and the lack of closure – in the best way possible.

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[i] Best described as a teary climax