Taking on taboos

Long before John Cameron Mitchell had even begun rolling the cameras for Shortbus, his much-anticipated follow-up to Hedwig and the Angry Inch [2001], people were buzzing about his intention to try to make a movie-theater movie that breaks the usual taboos when it comes to sex. His goal was to make a film with multidimensional characters and a fully developed storyline. When the film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May, it received a standing ovation, but Mitchell's challenge, of course, is that whenever sex is depicted in film or art in a truthful way, the result risks being called pornography, whether or not this is the case. Often that label says more about the labeler than it does about the creator. But the debate can also lead to dialogue about unspoken issues. And that's what civilization is--people talking and people listening. Late in the film, Justin Bond, who plays a kind of master of ceremonies at the club called Shortbus, says of the times in which they're living, "It's just like the '60s, only with less hope." Shortbus is one hopeful sign that the spirit of that questioning decade is alive and kicking in its own way.

Paul Dawson and P.J. DeBoy (with tattoo), who play James and Jamie respectively in Shortbus.

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COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning