I saw Shame

On Monday morning I saw a preview of Steve McQueen’s Shame. This is the second film from British auteur McQueen, following his picture Hunger from a couple of years back. Shame is a powerful look at a Manhattan corporate type’s sexual compulsion. It’s chilly, intense and quite frank in its sexual content, with lots of unselfconscious nudity from its leads, Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan. As a result, it’s earned the dreaded NC-17 rating from the American censors. However, it looks as though Fox Searchlight is still planning to promote it as they would any other picture. I think the performances especially warrant award attention, and I hope the Academy is brave enough to give the film a nod or two.

Closer to the release date I’ll post a full review of the film. In the meantime, here’s Carleton University cineast Daniel Bergamini’s blog The Deleted Scene, with his thoughts on the rating.

About the author

flawintheiris

Carsten Knox is a massive, cheese-eating nerd. In the day he works as a journalist in Halifax, Nova Scotia. At night he stares out at the rain-slick streets, watches movies, and writes about what he's seeing.

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