John Cameron Mitchell’s Shortbus Still Stimulates After 15 Years
Quinceañera, Puccini for Beginners, The Bubble, Boy Culture, and Another Gay Movie featuring various states of same-sex coitus — sometimes presented as romantic, but sometimes as exploitative or laughable.
Then there was John Cameron Mitchell’s Shortbus, which didn’t just depict gay sex as hot and satisfactory; it showed it up close, blowing many minds with its blend of cogent storytelling and on-camera masturbation, threesomes, penetration, and ejaculations.But Mitchell — already a queer film icon for penning and starring in the beloved Hedwig and the Angry Inch — had much more on his mind than titillation.
Though Hedwig the film debuted in 2001, Mitchell premiered the play off-off-Broadway in 1997. Shortbus was his first film post-9/11, and it’s a movie that depicts the New York of that moment with beautifully broken accuracy.
Mitchell showcases a city attempting to put itself back together while its inhabitants search for new ways to connect and explore their own metamorphoses.
