NYFF: "Shame"
Sunday, October 9, 2011 at 2:02PM Michael C. from Serious Film here with fresh dispatches from the New York Film Festival.
For all there is to chew over in director Steve McQueen's Shame, follow up to Hunger his stunning feature debut, my thoughts keep returning to Carey Mulligan's potent supporting work as Fassbender's irresponsible sister. She plays a drifter/lounge singer who disrupts his physically and emotionally empty life when she shows up to crash on his couch for an open-ended visit. For a film about walling yourself off from life until you're numb, Mulligan is at the opposite pole, a person so open to everything that she can't help leaving an emotional mess in her wake. It's a performance that is so unlike anything we've seen from her before it is hard not to get excited anticipating the long career of performances she has yet to give.
As for the film itself, even if I can't join in the chorus shouting "Masterpiece!", there is still much to recommend here. Mulligan plays Sissy, sibling to Michael Fassbender's Brandon, a slick New York City lady killer to the world and a joyless, self-abusing sex addict in private. We follow Brandon as his life begins to slip from its holding pattern and begin a rapid descent towards rock bottom. His work computer is hauled away teeming with viruses. He almost sabotages his chances at a healthy relationship with a beautiful coworker before it begins, and his sister's presence is a constant reminder of things he'd rather not think about.
After giving a similarly glacial performance in A Dangerous Method Fassbender is much more effective this time out, successfully suggesting the vast oceans of conflict churning beneath the placid surface. The performers are so electric, in fact, you could be forgiven for not noticing they are never much developed beyond being players in the familiar tale of addiction's downward spiral.
Yet even if Shame isn't saying much about addiction that Billy Wilder didn't say sixty-five years ago in The Lost Weekend, it is worth riding that night train to Hell again just to experience it through McQueen's lens. The director once again shows a rare skill for pacing and composition. The film lingers over moments with far more patience and attention than most filmmakers are capable of. As a result, McQueen and company transform what could have been an attempt to liven up tired subject matter with lurid material into something vital and alive.
Carey Mulligan, Michael Fassbender, NYFF, Shame, Steve McQueen
Reader Comments (3)
we're basically on the same page with this one so thanks for sharing your thoughts today. McQueen's visual sense is just so strong and the actors so potent that it's almost easy to miss what the film does lack.
Haha, I'm basically exactly on the same page with you guys too.
And more than anything this is the part I agree with 100%:
It's a performance that is so unlike anything we've seen from her before it is hard not to get excited anticipating the long career of performances she has yet to give.
This film got me a lot more excited about her than I was after An Education.
I think Mulligan has just begun to show us what she can do. I saw her on stage in Through a Glass Darkly and she was amazing. I love the intelligence that she reveals in every performance. And I was surprised by her daring in Shame. Wish she had come back at the end of the film somehow.