Shame

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The only thing that drives Brandon (Michael Fassbender) and seems to keep him alive is his compulsion for lust. Every sexual encounter with a woman inevitably drives the attractive New York office worker to the next. As a driven man, he is constantly on the lookout for chance encounters, casually ordering prostitutes to his impersonal apartment and masturbating as if to self-flagellation, as if only after that he could find some peace. His joyless routine is disrupted when Brandon's sister Sissy (Carey Mulligan) bursts into his apartment uninvited and from then on drives him crazy with her clinginess, money troubles and her sheer need for (married) men. And yet, just once, she moves him to tears, only recognisable to us viewers, when she sings the Sinatra classic New York, New York in a bar – so stretched and heartbreakingly vulnerable that time stands still for a moment. That sounds depressing, and often is, but Shame, a cool study of sex addiction, also develops a maelstrom as a highly concentrated observation of a person who ultimately remains an enigma. British artist and film director Steve McQueen, who previously worked with the excellent Michael Fassbender in Hunger (2008), focuses entirely on Brandon's present. Precisely because his behaviour is not interpreted in psychological terms, the viewer is all the more aware of the fine cracks in Brandon's isolation. Thus, his one emotional outburst is even more poignant.