Shamefully shameful?


Director: Steve McQueen
Staring: Michael Fassbender, Carey Mulligan
Released: 13th January


www.londonlift-off.com

I saw the trailer and thought, 'this looks good', Magneto with a sex addiction? - awesome! The colours reminded me of a certain film I saw last year that took my breath, and blood away! It had been on that premise that I went with friends to the Soho Curzon via the TEXAS Embassy. I was expecting darkness, danger, pumping music and tons of flesh - Instead I got cold, clammy, tough and over worn. It had been a stomach turning night indeed.  Just ask the poor clean-up guy at Warwick Avenue tube station who had to pick up the bits, after my brother had pebble-dashed the escalators - He went for the battered steak. Yes I said battered! We are never going to the TEXAS Embassy again!

You'll want to poke his bosses eyes out!

Much like the old boot my brother had for supper the film started with the same best intensions. Full frontal nudity, meaty. An apartment downtown on floor 20+, ambitious. A brush with a married redhead on the subway, raw!! -- But what became more and more apparent was that these set-up scenes had way too much time spent on them, the edit could have been quicker, instead they dragged. 


There is a great moment during the beginning with his boss in a club where they play the game of guess the eye colour of the girls at the bar; Fassbender nails it and then picks up the girl.. 'Oh boy', I think, 'this film is going to be nuts'.. I was wrong.


It's a pity because it picked you up to begin with, carrying some sort of strong expectation, you wanted to stay with this guy, he was strong, cool and clever; but unfortunately, due to a lacking script, it started to bore, and he weakened fast.


Despite the long scenes and many unreal situations the positives are aplenty, you get to see New York in a very loving light. Not seen in many modern films to date. I was privileged to spend a few moments there pretending to be a citizen myself and it felt like I was back. The view out of his apartment is of a vast Hudson, and an empty Brooklyn, it looked like the real New York! unlike the plastic one you see in toss like Sexy In The City. The photography makes you feel as if you are in this guys world. I had read that the director and the writer had walked the streets of Manhattan basically tracing the lead characters life, that sort of work always pays off. You might not believe his affliction, but you'll believe him.


The relationship with his sister Sissy (Cary Mulligan), is complex and deep. It appears that either the writer or the director has first-hand experience of this sort of sensitive relationship because it is given a lot of detail, and it seems the only real element of the script that actually works. The scene where a naked Fassbender attacks his sister on the sofa has the potential for either incest, or ultra violence. A great scene, which is apart from the rest of the film.

A sibling relationship packed with detail.

Another real moment is the sex scene with Fassbender's work colleague. It is sexy and very raw. The two actors really go for it, and you feel almost rude to be implying on their person; but then it starts to suck you in and at a particular point I actually felt like it was my fingers being sucked, not Fassbender's. A feeling in the film only found once and never again explored.

The sex addiction was a bit 'hmmmmm': It all seemed very unreal. Every girl he played about with was, sexy!!? -- Fair enough he might be picky, but surely that misses the point? He's not bi-sexual and yet at his darkest moment toward the end, he finds a black guy willing to suck him off in a sordid gay club. The jump from sexy girl to oh fuck it I'll have a man didn't seem real. One of my friends that I was with mentioned that he should have gone for the little chinese lady on the train, a kind of you'll do moment. it leaves the awkward question of 'if you had to get off no matter what, how far would you go?'. This was shown to be the case only once, and it was such a big jump that it made everything seem loose and unrealistic. I am sure that when you are having ten wanks a day in your 40's then you'll do anything - with anyone! - No matter how big your forehead is! 


Fassenbender's forehead is huge... And thankfully it is mentioned in the film. 'Laughter from the back-row..' on Friday night in Soho... Sorry, that was us.


If you want to feel weird and uneasy for an hour and a half then go and watch this movie. If you want to know what its like to be lonely in downtown Manhattan then go and watch this movie. If you want to research sex addiction then go and watch all of Micheal Douglas' flicks circa 1987...

Written by James Alexander
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