FILM
Shame
18- Steve McQueen
- In English
- 101 mins
Showing as part of Play It Again
The highly anticipated second feature from artist-turned-filmmaker Steve McQueen reunites him with award-winning actor Michael Fassbender, also the lead in McQueen’s stunning 2008 debut Hunger. Filmed on location in New York, Fassbender gives a strong, confident performance as Brandon – a 30-something Manhattan executive living comfortably in the city balancing a busy job and active social life, which revolves around his impulsive sexual encounters. As Brandon moves from woman to woman, his sexual obsessions are displayed on screen in frank and visceral detail and it is only when his wayward sister Sissy (Carey Mulligan) comes to stay that Brandon confronts his carefully managed but addictive lifestyle head-on. A truly compelling and courageous examination of the nature of need, the experiences that shape us, and the extremes of human behaviour.
Podcast Review
Want to know if Shame is for you? Listen to our review of the film in the Cornerhouse Podcast here.
Staff/Audience Review
Or read a review from Cornerhouse customer Simran Hans here or our LiveWire Young Film Critic Jay Crosbie here.
Hear from the director
And for those of you who were unable to get a ticket for our sell out Q&A with director Steve McQueen, you can watch the highlights here.
More Info
Cast: Michael Fassbender, Carey Mulligan, James Badge Dale
Country: UK
Year: 2011
Last shown
Last shown at Cornerhouse on Sun 8th Apr 2012
REVIEWS
Shame feels less formal, less rooted in the language of the art installation than McQueen's previous film, Hunger, and is all the more satisfying for that. This is fluid, rigorous, serious cinema; the best kind of adult movie. ****
The Guardian
Fassbender is the full package in a carnal drama that spares no blushes and pulls no punches. Likely to be one of 2012’s bravest and best. [...] Provocative and powerful ****
Total Film
Like Hunger, Shame is interested in the stark immediacy of one man’s world and drawing us into that world without easy explanations. It’s a work that feels, both for our times and of them. It reconfirms McQueen as a filmmaker with an unflinching, microscopic gaze on the world. [...] Courageous and distinctive ****
Time Out
Fassbender and Mulligan are dynamite. And McQueen is a born provocateur. There's no easy way to shake off Shame. It gets in your head.
Rolling Stone
