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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.