SHAME

Shame, directed by Steve McQueen, stars Michael Fassbender as Brandon, a sleek, single New Yorker whose ordered life is disrupted when his sister Cissy (played by Carey Mulligan) arrives unexpectedly to stay with him.

However, Shame is not just a film about a dysfunctional relationship between siblings: it is a ruthless and cold look at sex addiction. Brandon’s social life, or lack thereof, allows him to indulge in his heavy dependence on prostitutes, porn and casual sex. His sister Cissy is perhaps more damaged than he is: it becomes clear that whilst Brandon has created a life that allows him to avoid expressing his emotions, Cissy seems unable to contain them. McQueen gives the audience the freedom to guess at the upbringing of Brandon and Cissy, and what trauma caused them to be the way they are. Under all this lies an ice-cold layer of shame.

Stylishly shot, each scene of this film is littered with meaning and tinted with Brandon’s repressed rage, self-disgust and helplessness. His every emotion is  restrained and controlled, making it both uncomfortable and powerful to watch. In one scene, Cissy performs a slow, stilted rendition of New York, New York: heartbreakingly flawed and lonely, we are able to scrutinize every expression on her face in a long, unbroken shot.
 

Shame is a beautifully shot film, unaffected and full of truth. Fassbender is fearless, and utterly convincing in his obsessive, unbreakable cycle of unhappiness. Mulligan is similarly brave, beautifully evoking the fragile loneliness of Cissy that makes the story so poignant and frank. Without pretension or artificiality, McQueen has created a film that follows the intertwined lives of two individuals, equally but very differently unhappy, 
gently asking us whether we can judge either of their actions, when they are only reflections of our society.