I Heart Shortbus
I saw and loved John Cameron Mitchell’s SHORTBUS over the weekend. I’ll spare a few hundred words of praise and say I pretty much agree with Moriarty’s review — though I’d hope my readers are a little less eww-gross-boys-kissing! than the average AICN commenter.
Mr. Mitchell and I used to eat lunch at the same Koo Koo Roo — yes, the notorious one — back when he was a bit player on the short-lived sitcom Party Girl. I want to claim that I knew him before Hedwig, but the truth is I only knew who he was. Important distinction.
Because it’s not rated, Shortbus probably won’t play in most markets.1 But that’s what DVDs are for.
- Which reminds me: Check out THIS FILM IS NOT YET RATED, a funny and interesting documentary by Kirby Dick about the MPAA ratings system. ↩
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October 16th, 2006 at 11:18 am
You totally just learned how to do footnotes. And agreed, “Shortbus” is excellent. So is Koo Koo Roo.
But that greek place on Larchmont is best.
October 16th, 2006 at 11:40 am
You’re really loving the footnotes aren’t you
By the way, how do you add footnotes in WordPress?
October 16th, 2006 at 12:11 pm
Saw This Film Not Yet Rated, HIGHLY recommend others see it, esp. if you are making an indie movie. It points out the glaringly different standards that are applied between indie and studio fare.
October 16th, 2006 at 3:59 pm
I find it very sad that John links to AICN, a site controlled more by ads and favors then for love of film.
October 16th, 2006 at 8:13 pm
I’ve been reading and loving your blog, as I’m just coming to the end of directing a movie of my own (mix next week) and it’s great to see so many of my own experiences through eyes as sharp as yours. John Cameron Mitchell was in my first movie, a long time before Hedwig, and I was at the time lead to believe that I shot the first boy-boy kiss ever to air on American television (though that may have been look-how-edgy-we-are hype on the part of the network) between Mitchell and a straight actor who surely wanted to kill me after about the sixteenth piece of coverage.
October 16th, 2006 at 8:22 pm
Yeah, I’m geeking out on the footnotes. But it does allow for more clarification than one would have otherwise. I really didn’t want to do it on two posts in a row.
I’m using Simon Elvery’s Footnotes plug-in, which works well (though I had to use the “legacy” markup to get it functioning).
October 16th, 2006 at 8:28 pm
I caught the last 3/4 of the THIS FILM IS NOT YET RATED premeire at the Full Frame doc festival and it was fantastic. I voted for it three times, something I’m not ashamed of. Having been thrown out of R rated movies as recently as The Matrix Revolutions, it was refreshing to see someone call the MPAA on it’s bullshit and especially nice to watch their anonymity destroyed.
October 17th, 2006 at 3:33 am
Agreed, Shortbus is fantastic - funny, imaginative and very heartfelt. While it might not get a ‘rated’ release in the US, the film will be released, rated and entirely uncut, in the UK on December 1st.
October 17th, 2006 at 6:50 am
I think I’m less “ew-gross-boys-kissing” and more ew-gross-Koo Koo Roo-sucks. Maybe it’s just the ones I’ve been to that sucked, though.
Anyway, I’ll be sure to check those movies out.
October 19th, 2006 at 8:13 pm
Shortbus is so lovely. For anyone on the fence because of the graphic (and “real”) sex– don’t worry about it. The movie couldn’t be more good-hearted. It’s hysterically funny and very, very tender.
See it in a theatre if you can– for Canadian readers, it’s currently playing in Toronto and Ottawa, and will be playing in Vancouver as of this weekend.