"It’s one of the most distinctive and worthy films I’ve seen recently" - H. Johnston-Stewart

Hunger, Steve McQueen’s directorial debut, was a challenging film to watch. It was made with great skill and incredible confidence in a first time director (of anything, not even a short to his name) and it launched his career and the career of his leading man, Michael Fassbender. 3 years later the two were reunited, far from the shackles of a Northern Irish prison, in the glossy, hollow New York apartment of a sex addict. I can’t quite follow the logical succession, but that’s off piste.

Shame takes a very direct, visual approach to its subject matter. With no qualms about nudity, dignity or casting Irish and English actors in his American leads, McQueen calmly displays the downward spiral of a high functioning addict with disturbing results. Michael Fassbender gives a very physical and characteristically consistent performance as Brandon Sullivan, a role spent watching porn, having aggressive sex with prostitutes or trying to hide the sordid details of his private life from his friends and colleagues. His downwards spiral is contrasted by the attempts for reconciliation made by his sister Sissy, played by a vibrant while bitter Carey Mulligan, who is managing her takeover of Hollywood with frightening efficiency (those who have seen drive will know what I mean). Like all addict films, (Requiem, Trainspotting, Scarface) any vestiges of a conventional plot is constituted by the main character hurtling towards rock bottom, with no hope of redemption until he reaches it. But, without wishing to spoil anything, Shame manages to subvert this custom with a thinly veiled but visually distressing plot twist which takes what was already a painful experience of a film and makes it excruciating.

Shame is a film which supplies no hope of its own for the viewer. Thanks to the Inception-esque ambiguity of the ending, the outcome of the film is up to you. Redemption not included, as it were. Having been turned away from a concert minutes before seeing this film, I went into it fraught with cynicism and misanthropy, and that’s exactly what I got out of it. Go in with the best of intentions and perhaps you can have some of your faith in humanity restored. Or at least preserved.

Shame is not a fun film to watch, nor is it uplifting for its sorrows. This may seem like a negative review, but it’s not. Far from it, it’s one of the most distinctive and worthy films I’ve seen recently. Just don’t go with your parents. Or Children. P.S. On a final note, what Clooney said at the Golden Globes about Fassbender being able to ‘play golf with hands behind his back with that thing’ is entirely true. No homo.

H. Johnston-Stewart