Day 146

Movie: Shame
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Carey Mulligan
Genre: Drama
Year: 2011
Format: Shaw Video On Demand

Plot: A man living alone in New York battling sex addiction has his life thrown into chaos when his younger sister moves in with him. Soon the two are threatening each others sanity.

This film is sexual without being sexy.  The first 6 minutes feels like a time loop, as it sets the plot of the lead character's life with the same scene inter-cut of him walking around the apartment naked.
It's a brave film on many levels, one being the obvious, which is the full frontal nudity for most of it.
On the surface, this film seems like it's about the addiction itself, but after a few minutes, you realize it's a love story between the two siblings; one that is never completely explained.

It's confusing and grown up but dark and cold at the same time.  Fassbender plays his scenes with Mulligan with the strangled discomfort of a man who is thrown into a dark tunnel. There is a creepy sense of controlled passion between the two siblings, which comes through most when Mulligan's character climbs into bed with him and he screams at her to leave, but does not physically remove her.  It's as if he's terrified to touch her.

The undertone of this film just kept reminding me of the movie American Psycho, there was just the same cold mask of control to it.

What do I think I learned from this film?
We're all in the dark looking for a light and a soft spot to land.