I saw SHAME last night and it’s equal parts devastating and beautiful; one of my favorite films of the year along with MEEK’S CUTOFF, TAKE SHELTER and ANOTHER EARTH. It has a singular tone that presents the world of the film in an honest and unflinching way without being exploitative—director Steve McQueen simply allows his characters to exist, examining them in long takes beneath the swell of music, inviting the audience to pass their own judgment on people who are mentally, emotionally and physically broken.
The character of Brandon Sullivan (played by Michael Fassbender) reminds me of Daniel Plainview from THERE WILL BE BLOOD or Patrick Bateman from AMERICAN PSYCHO: driven by the dark impulses of his nature, increasingly aware of his own slow descent, but incapable of stopping himself. The difference is that SHAME’s ambiguous ending leaves Brandon’s future open for interpretation (a device that’s used in the other three films I mentioned above), a possible glimmer of hope in an otherwise unsatisfying life.
