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 322 Ratings

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7.8

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7.8	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 322 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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Awards & Rankings

79	#79 Most Discussed Movie of 2011
42	#42 Most Shared Movie of 2011

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Metascore

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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.

7 of 14 users found this helpful77

EmptyFilmStock

May 25, 2012

The plot, Fassbender and Mulliganâ

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

Spangle

Jan 9, 2017

A haunting, horrifying, and harrowing portrayal of self-hatred, Shame is a dreadfully melancholy and truly abrasive look at the spiral one can go through when suffering. With an incredible lead performance from Michael Fassbender anchoring Steve McQueen's exploration of sex addiction, selfA haunting, horrifying, and harrowing portrayal of self-hatred, Shame is a dreadfully melancholy and truly abrasive look at the spiral one can go through when suffering. With an incredible lead performance from Michael Fassbender anchoring Steve McQueen's exploration of sex addiction, self loathing, and depression, Shame is a film unlike many others. It takes real courage to explore sex addiction in a meaningful way, as many write it off as something that is impossible to be addicted to and, as such, not a real addiction. Instead, sex addicts are cast aside as dirty perverts who are the shame of society. As Brandon Sullivan (Fassbender) shows, however, he does not enjoy sex. It is a need. It provides a momentary high and then he comes crashing back down to earth into a rapidly spiraling out of control mire of self hatred.

From the very beginning of the film, McQueen adorns his film with shades of blue and gray. Melancholy and depressing colors, Brandon wears a gray jacket with a blue scarf daily. The scenes behind him at home, work, and on the subway, are covered with grays and blues. This colorization truly sets the scene for the film, which is incredibly depressing and a dark look at depression as a whole, both through Brandon and his sister Sissy (Carey Mulligan). In many ways, Sissy is just like Brandon. When he finds her unexpectedly in his apartment, she is in the shower and has no problems with Brandon seeing her naked. The two of them are incredibly open with one another to the point that she has sex in Brandon's bed with him in the other room and makes out with a guy in a cab right next to Brandon. The two know the other is a sexual being, but they have a similarity: they use sex to disguise the pain. Sissy is suicidal with numerous scars on her arms and flirts with jumping in front of a pain. Brandon himself sort of just mopes around the film, rejecting human companionship of any kind in favor of short lasting jolts of sexual energy with random people. For Brandon, he is straight, but will pay for sex, pick up women, watch porn, read porn, or accept sex from men. Anything to get his fix fits the bill and it is how he covers up the pain. Sissy, in the short time we see her, seemingly does the same thing with references to past lovers and an obsession with her current lover. Thus, she is far less fleeting and more concerned with finding long-term connections with somebody who can mend her broken pieces. Unfortunately, she cannot find this person, as she is unable to fix herself first.

In its exhaustive sex scenes, Shame may turn off more than a few viewers. However, if you watch the film and go with it, it becomes clear that this is not an erotic film. The sex scenes are depressive. They are cathartic for Brandon as he gets his fix, but it continues to fuel his spiral of self loathing. It is clear he is disgusted with himself. He feels intense shame to the point that he throws out of all his porn magazines, computer, and anything else that is of a sexual nature. He tries to move on and become normal. He goes on a date with a woman from work and tries to be nice without taking her home on the first date. However, once he has sex with her, it does not do it for him. He must get his fix, so he calls up a random girl and has sex with her instead. He follows up it with a threesome towards the end of the film and a random encounter with a guy. Though he does these things, it is not voluntary. Brandon is addicted to sex, yes, but he keeps indulging in this addiction because he cannot stand himself. Looking in the mirror is a tiring task and, when he does, he does not like what he sees. Undeniably, Brandon is suicidal and suffering from intense depression. Sex does not even make him happy, he merely goes through the motions because it has become the norm. Actually meaningful sex is a foreign concept to him and one that is no longer able to perform. Cheap throwaway sex with random women is the only thing that keeps him going. Unfortunately, it only feeds his self-hatred as he becomes even more depressed that he is so alone. His addiction leaves him unable to find a companion for longer than four months or, as is often the case, a single night. It is this spiral that makes the film only slightly one about sex addiction. Rather, it is a film about how people cope. For Brandon, it is via sex (which is certainly addicted to) and it is the only way he can make himself feel. For Sissy, it is through cutting herself and throwing herself into relationships.

A tragic and often hard to watch film, Shame shines a lot on the depravity one can do to themselves when they do not love themselves. Brandon Sullivan is one of the most depressed characters in a film in recent years and Fassbender truly brings him to life in a shockingly brilliant performance. Alongside him, Carey Mulligan breathes life into Sissy, who is equally as depressive as her brother. Together, they make one somber and melancholy duo.… Expand

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 7 users found this helpful07

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