Shame

Name: Shame
Genre: Drama
Released: December 2, 2011
Duration: 101 min
Rating: 72

2011

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 41 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 333 Ratings

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7.8

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7.8	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 333 Ratings

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Shame

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Movie Details & Credits

Fox Searchlight Pictures | Release Date: December 2, 2011 | NC-17

Summary: Brandon is a New Yorker who shuns intimacy with women but feeds his desires with a compulsive addiction to sex. When his wayward younger sister moves into his apartment stirring memories of their shared painful past, Brandon's insular life spirals out of control. (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Director: Steve McQueen

Genre(s): Drama

Rating: NC-17

Runtime: 101 mins

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Critic Reviews

100

Calvin Wilson

Jan 20, 2012

The film is a raw, unsparing look at the downside of humanity. Read full review

100

Justin Chang

Nov 8, 2011

A mesmerizing companion piece to his 2008 debut, "Hunger," this more approachable but equally uncompromising drama likewise fixes its gaze on the uses and abuses of the human body, as Michael Fassbender again strips himself down, in every way an actor can, for McQueen's rigorous but humane interrogation. Read full review

Movieline Stephanie Zacharek

Dec 1, 2011

Mulligan is terrific here, and restrained in a way that suggests an actorly generosity unusual for someone so young: Her scenes with Fassbender don't so much say "Look at me" as "Look at him." Read full review

Claudia Puig

Dec 1, 2011

Fassbender's portrayal is truly haunting, and when he sobs, dramatically unraveling, it's clear he's imprisoned by his physical urges. Read full review

Joe Morgenstern

Dec 1, 2011

Much of the film is banal or pretentious, or both - vacuous vignettes about emptiness. Occasionally, though, those vignettes burst into life and burn with consuming fire. Read full review

A.O. Scott

Dec 1, 2011

How can visual pleasure communicate existential misery? It is a real and interesting challenge, and if Shame falls short of meeting it, the seriousness of its effort is hard to deny. Read full review

Ben Sachs

Dec 1, 2011

Most of the film feels recycled from sexually explicit art movies dating back at least to "Last Tango in Paris" (1972) and continuing with movies like Patrice Chéreau's "Intimacy" (2001) or Götz Spielmann's "Antares" (2004). With nothing new in its characters, settings, or themes, Shame has little to offer except McQueen's style, which does little to elucidate anything around it. Read full review

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User Reviews

jrb06ee

Dec 3, 2011

One of the most thought provoking films regarding a subject not often talked about. Fassbender gives a truly tortured performance worthy of at least an Oscar nomination.

9 of 16 users found this helpful97

EmptyFilmStock

May 25, 2012

The plot, Fassbender and Mulliganâ

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

MikefromAngus

Feb 27, 2018

What an amazing movie! From start to the amazing ending the movie is great! Every scene belongs in the movie.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Nesbitt10

Jan 27, 2013

"Shame" examines the nature of need, and how we live our lives and the experiences that shape us. "Shame" leaves us to internalize our thoughts, asking us to paint our own cinematic details in the gaps, and with the dark feeling that something black and heartless has been communicated most"Shame" examines the nature of need, and how we live our lives and the experiences that shape us. "Shame" leaves us to internalize our thoughts, asking us to paint our own cinematic details in the gaps, and with the dark feeling that something black and heartless has been communicated most powerfully. Brandon (Michael Fassbender) is a good-looking, young man in his early 30's, who lives alone in a sterile condo in Manhattan. He works in a cubicle with a computer. Never mind what his company does. It makes no difference to him. Sometimes in the evening, he and his boss, David (James Badge Dale), go out to drink in singles bars. David is a outgoing and throwing out pick-up lines. Brandon just sits there, his face impassive, knowing he doesn't have to. He shuns intimacy with women but feeds his desires with a compulsive addiction to sex. The film's opening shot shows Brandon awake in the morning, staring immobile into space. He could be a man prepared to commit suicide. He gets out of bed, goes into the shower and masturbates. It will be the first of his many orgasms, solitary and with company, that day. He never reveals emotion. He lives like a man compelled to follow an inevitable course, and his life is a living hell. He is cold to everyone he encounters; prostitutes, co-workers, to strangers. On the subway, he trades eye contact with a woman who may be flirting with. He boldly maintains eye contact, but he doesn't smile. His is a dreadful life. His shame is masked in privacy. He wants no witnesses to his hookers, his pornography, his masturbation.
The introduction of Sissy (Carey Mulligan), Brandon's sister, injects spontaneity and life into this-up to this point-an almost emotionally desolate film. She is as passionate and uninhibited as he is the opposite. This encounter resurfaces stirring memories of their shared painful past, and Brandon's insular life and addiction begin to spiral out of control. She needs him desperately and that frightens him most. She works sometimes as a cabaret singer, and in one scene, she performs a fantastic rendition of "New York, New York" in close-up. This close-up also shows pain and grief of both, a truly beautiful moment captured. McQueen's camera gives us a mix of the highly-stylized and the stark, with frequent long takes giving the actors the narrative space to embellish scenes with depth. Fassbender for one, is often captured looking unseeingly at the ground, failing to register the world before him. It can get to be overwhelming and burdensome for some as the movie, as well as Brandon's addiction, progresses. But Michael Fassbender's powerful, gut-wrenching performance and Steve McQueen behind the camera is what makes this so extraordinary.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

goncalocouto

Oct 20, 2018

"Shame" é um filme melancólico que abraça completamente o sofrimento. Michael Fassbender teve uma performance fantástica nesta película.
8/10

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

bcool

Apr 9, 2012

Good movie but not as good as it may sound from the reviews.it's like they wanted to make a movie about sex addiction but they just didn't know how, so they filled it with ridiculous scenes (like that slow and boring rendition of New York, New York ), a lot of sex (which is fine) and made itGood movie but not as good as it may sound from the reviews.it's like they wanted to make a movie about sex addiction but they just didn't know how, so they filled it with ridiculous scenes (like that slow and boring rendition of New York, New York ), a lot of sex (which is fine) and made it quite monotonous.and I didn't notice much sexual tension between Brandon and Sissy (as some reviews suggested). to make a long story short this could have been much better movie.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Parmesano

Apr 6, 2014

It's not offensive, it's not particularly interesting, it's mainly just boring, and extremely overrated.

The guy's problem is uninteresting and 90% of the male population has the same urges/done worse. Personally I felt that some of the behaviour/dialogue felt wrong to, perhaps due to theIt's not offensive, it's not particularly interesting, it's mainly just boring, and extremely overrated.

The guy's problem is uninteresting and 90% of the male population has the same urges/done worse. Personally I felt that some of the behaviour/dialogue felt wrong to, perhaps due to the choice of actor (European), e.g. the bar scene and some others. I was not surprised to find out later on that McQueen is a black guy as it would suit a black actor much better.

I sat through it until the end so I guess it wasn't completely terrible but I sure did feel as if I had wasted my time.… Expand

0 of 8 users found this helpful08

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81	#81 Most Discussed Movie of 2011
42	#42 Most Shared Movie of 2011