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Poster & Mini-Review: SHAME (dir. Steve McQueen) 2011

so Fox Searchlight is finally getting things in gear for Steve McQueen’s follow-up to HUNGER, announcing a 12/2 release date yesterday and then launching the campaign’s first poster this afternoon (give the folks a trailer, guys).

i had the pleasure of catching the film at its NYFF P&I screening this morning, and… well, the poster is certainly spot-on. SHAME tells the somewhat impenetrable story of an Irish ex-pat named Brandon (Michael Fassbender, obviously) forced to confront the residual damage of his raging sex addiction when his sister (Carey Mulligan, less obviously) drops by for an unsolicited stay. the image of rumpled sheets in the poster above is a vertical rotation of the film’s opening / title shot, a vacant shot that speaks to the consequences of his affliction, appropriately undercutting the value of the sex, itself. i’m assuming Fox Searchlight’s next poster will just feature a life-size photo of Fassbender’s penis… ya know, for bus stops, and stuff.

anyway, McQueen’s exceptional eye for compositions warps NYC against Brandon, forcing his inner and outer lives into a merciless war of attrition… McQueen runs with the city as a grid, his precise geometry isolating and exposing Brandon in equal measure. the filmmaking is remarkable, as is Fassbender’s wrenching lead performance, but McQueen thrives with the non-linear, his voracious aesthetics not jiving with the narrative’s more organic moments as perfectly as they did in the more boldly audacious HUNGER (and James Badge Dale’s performance as Brandon’s wired dog of a boss grates to the hilt). it’s a brilliant study of addiction, context, and the refuge of privacy in a public world, eventually embracing melodrama in a way that almost mocks the form.

but yeah… this one’s gonna be divisive, more so than ya might think. the legions of ladies who flock to the theater to indulge in some fassen-bulge (rhyming!) are gonna get what they came for (hey-o!) right off the bat (???), but the rest of the ride is going to prove mighty hard to take (…). DO NOT — I REPEAT: DO NOT — SEE THIS ON A DATE. or with your sister. …although it might be a good choice if you’re on a date with your sister.