The hardcore sex in Shortbus seems to be getting all of the attention, but it's only one piece of the greater messy and orgasmic picture. Using sex as a launching pad to explore the lives of a disparate group of disillusioned, post-9/11 New Yorkers, the film is as much about emotional intimacy as it is about physical intimacy. Whether they've never had an orgasm, are struggling to reach out to a partner despite the shackles of depression or can't even tell another person their real name, the characters are all broken and disconnected in some way.
Then they find each other at a weekly salon named Shortbus. Through this celebration of art, politics and sex, they're able to discover themselves and each other and finally begin to heal in a way that's never trite, cloying or overly sentimental. Colourful, raucous, heart-wrenching, funny and touching, Shortbus is an absolutely rapturous look at the human condition.
Sarah Kurchak
Directed by: David Leaf, John Scheinfeld As The Beatles dissolved and John Lennon became fascinated with Yoko Ono and world politics, the FBI started tracking his every move at the request of the Nixon administration. Lennon's music might just be music, they thought, but it might also be more than a little weird (the "bed-ins," the "total communication" ramblings). Lennon was the voice of his generation, more powerful than radicals Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin.
The documentary talks to the people in Lennon's life at that time, as well as the government officials whose job it was to keep tabs on the Beatle.
Directors Leaf and Scheinfeld don't really seem to know what their message is, but they do a remarkable job of collecting interviews with some of the biggest names of Lennon's life. You get candid appearances out of everybody from Ono to Nixon thug and media whore G.
Gordon Liddy to Walter Cronkite, and each contribute a lot of weight (Cronkite) or unintentional humour (Liddy) to the narrative. But the real star is Lennon himself, whose dry humour and striking appearance make him a superb leading man. And even if the message is a little muddled, you can't deny the power of seeing thousands demonstrating against the Vietnam War by chanting "Give Peace A Chance.
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