Product Reviews
Available from Prowler Direct - as reviewed in Gay Times.
John Cameron Mitchell's Shortbus was GT's favourite film of last year, so it's a pleasure to see it here on DVD with a genuinely interesting "Making of..." documentary and commentaries.
Shortbus centres on the "Shortbus salon for the gifted and challenged", a sex-party-come-art-club-come-party-house hosted by Kiki & Herb's Justin Bond, playing himself. James and Jamie (Paul Dawson and PJ DeBoy) are attending couple counselling to discuss opening up their relationship. Their counsellor (Sook-Yin Lee) has never had an orgasm ("I'm pre-orgasmic"), and the depressive Jamie is making a suicide video to show James that it isn't his fault, while being stalked by obsessive Caleb (Peter Stickles). At the salon, the two Js meet Ceth (Jay Brannan) and engage in a three-way ("I hope they realise it has to be monogamous").
In Shortbus, they search for forgiveness and learn to have their psyches penetrated. Many column inches were spent emphasising that was the first film containing real sex to receive a certificate, and that it feats the best auto-fellatio scenes ever filmed. But this is missing the point.
Shortbus is the warm-hearted, sad, but ultimately redemptive parable that New York has sorely been needing to help it come to terms with itself post-9/11. It's also sexy and entertaining.