3. Shame
As soon as I saw this trailer on the big screen, I was counting down the days until Steve McQueen’s follow up to Hunger was released.
The plot centres around the life of Brandon (Fassbender), a thirty something executive living in New York City who has been steadily creating a life which allows him to indulge in his sex addiction successfully, that is until his sister Sissy (Mulligan) arrives to stay with him for a few weeks.
As we drop into Brandon’s slick apartment while he walks around completely naked, you cannot help but feel like a voyeur sneaking looks for our own guilty pleasure, which is just how McQueen wants us to feel. McQueen really pushes the boundaries when it comes to what we think can be shown on screen, especially sexually and to his eternal credit he doesn’t pull any punches. In fact he hits us repeatedly with knock out punch after knock out punch of savage and graphic film making.
We are shown another human being at his most open and at his most vulnerable. McQueen, almost forces us to watch this person struggle with something that he cannot control, reminiscent of Trainspotting or Requiem for a dream, it’s is harrowing and simply put, really tough to watch.
Our perspective as voyeur increases throughout the film, we see him at work, conversing and brokering deals for his firm, appearing normal and trying to keep his addiction manageable and secret, even though he is having to masturbate in the company toilets and watch copious amounts of porn on his company computer mere feet from his co-workers. We watch Brandon interact with people and we see him work hard to show no signs of his addiction. McQueen uses a lot of unbroken shots to illustrate this cancer in Brandon’s life, including multiple long shots which serve to separate us from Brandon just enough so we don’t start to feel the shame as well.
The score expertly uses strings to really add poignancy and weight to the soundtrack and the use of music overlapping the sounds of what we see forces us to focus harder on Brandon’s face as we see him ache for intimacy, it’s an awkward process but one which engages you throughout.
With the arrival of Sissy, Brandon’s sister, we see how strained the dynamic and relationship between the two are. The story doesn’t probe into this, leaving a mystery as to why Brandon doesn’t want her around or can cut her out of his life for long periods at a time, which is probably the only downside to the film. Carey Mulligan delivers and connects with Fassbender, their relationship is believable and gripping, when the two of them are on screen together it is almost difficult to discern which one should receive more of your attention.
As the film progresses we see Brandon’s life unravelling with his inability to suppress his growing addiction. We watch from just out of arms reach as Brandon takes a co-worker to a hotel and is unable to perform with her sexually as she tries to be intimate with him. She leaves and then we are taken back to the hotel to see Brandon performing with a hooker. We watch as Brandon goes out and tries to seduce a girl with a boyfriend, leading him to being assaulted by her lover. We follow him on his search for his fix into a gay club where we realise that his addiction is to the act of sex and ones sexuality doesn’t dictate where his fix comes from, he kisses a man and forces his head down to receive head from this stranger, the camera never leaves Brandon’s face as we truly see the shame he feels. He leaves the club and arranges a meeting with two prostitutes, the film, like his addiction is unrelenting. We watch on as he fucks one of the hookers and once again we are focused by McQueen on nothing but the face of Brandon as he breaks down during an intimate act which he spends all of his time thinking about and pursuing, yet he cannot feel anything other than a quick hedonistic high.
Michael Fassbender’s portrayal of Brandon is simply put, captivating. His sheer embodiment of the character slowly and somewhat ironically pulls us closer to him than he could ever feel to us. His raw emotion and power whenever he is on screen deserves any accolades that are bestowed on him.
Baron Jamie gives this: 5/5 Mesmerising, powerful and harrowing, a daring film from McQueen and a stunning performance from Michael Fassbender.
