Shortbus (2006, John Cameron Mitchell)

Katy and I and fifty gay men enjoyed the new JC Mitchell movie. Two guys in a long term relationship, one of whom is a suicidal iMovie-filmmaker, open up by allowing a third guy into the relationship. Oh, and a neighbor is stalking the suicidal guy and wait, they go to a club called shortbus and recommend their family psychological counselor go too (even though she’s really bad at her job and doesn’t help them) and she has crazy nutty supersex with her bf but no orgasms and there’s an ex-mayor of New York and a runaway goth girl with a made-up name. Plot summary is useless really. It’s a party of a movie… sad and awful but mostly fun(ny) and exciting. Great singalong parade of a finale.

Not nearly the same kind of look and feel as Hedwig… not glossy or shiny or anything. Appropriate, though, since that kind of approach wouldn’t have worked. All the interweaving characters and stories run together very well. Not everyone gets a full story arc – some are more developed than others… and good, because everyone’s lives don’t work themselves out during the few-week timespan of a movie. Felt more real than Little Children, unfortunately.