Shortbus explores sexuality

An underground club is filled with naked women, men and everything in between doing things to each other that would make Jenna Jameson blush. Real people. Real sex. John Cameron Mitchell's portrayal of a group of New York City twenty-somethings who come to know each other at the secret club Shortbus is a daring feat.

However, Shortbus, the follow-up to his acclaimed debut musical film, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, shows more than just threesomes and bondage. In exploring the human desire for pleasure, Mitchell has created a charming, intelligent yet visceral film that doesn't just ask us important questions, but confronts us with them. What is art? What is pornography? Who decides?

Distributor ThinkFilm released Shortbus unrated because of its overt sexuality. Mitchell was clearly aware of the controversy this film would engender: in one scene the director has a minor character ejaculate onto a Jackson Pollack painting, and the semen blends into the design and color of the painting.

With Shortbus, Mitchell is clearly responding to the societal standard of what qualifies as art. Most American independent filmmakers steer away from these issues for fear of the dreaded NC-17 rating that equals distributors putting your film on the backburner. It seems that Mitchell sensed art-house audiences might be ready to try something new.

Shortbus also boasts a core group of richly developed protagonists. In particular, the couples' counselor Sofia (Sook-Yin Lee) provides the perspective of an outsider who is introduced into this world of glamorized deviance. Her search for pleasure is humorous but also invites the audience into a very personal place.

Mitchell has a way of making the unknown and strange feel familiar. He did it in the fantastic Hedwig, which, in telling the story of a German transsexual's love affair with a rock star, also addresses issues of sexual difference. This film could have felt cheaply voyeuristic and entirely sexual like Eyes Wide Shut, but instead, it feels like a story about real people.

Shortbus is proof that John Cameron Mitchell makes personal films. His passion has translated into a shocking yet endearing whirlwind of storytelling. More of our independent filmmakers should take their cues from Mitchell and start making movies that will test audiences and not simply gratify them.