Shortbus
THINKFilm | Release Date: October 4, 2006 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
64
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 27 Critic Reviews
Positive:
15
Mixed:
11
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Developed by Mitchell and the actors, the characters don't always seem consistent from moment to moment, but a sharp sense of humor and comfortable performances by a committed and--it must be said--remarkably limber cast help smooth over the rough edges. Read full review
83
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
Shortbus is nothing if not over-the-top, replete with consummated sex acts, both gay and straight. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
The boldest provocation of Mitchell’s sweet, tender and gently funny film may be its exuberant celebration of community and togetherness at a cultural moment rife with fatalism and disconnect. Read full review
75
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
A darkly comic trifle that follows in the footsteps of such films as Catherine Breillat's "Romance" (2000), "The Brown Bunny" (2003) and Michael Winterbottom's "9 Songs" (2004) by incorporating hard-core sex into a nonpornographic narrative. Read full review
75
PremiereGlenn Kenny
Mitchell's energy and occasional ingenuity make Shortbus an engaging viewing experience, provided you can stomach it. Read full review
75
New York PostLou Lumenick
Mitchell's adventurous, big- hearted, pansexual mosaic of New Yorkers looking for love and orgasms (not necessarily in that order), is a rare example of a nonporn film that doesn't exploit graphic sex as a gimmick. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
If there is such a thing as hard-core with a soft heart, this is it. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy Burr
In Shortbus, the impish writer-director John Cameron Mitchell does the unthinkable: He puts the joy back in movie sex. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
It's refreshing to see a non-mainstream movie that wears its heart and lust on its sleeve, and has anything but violence on its mind. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Shortbus is, first and foremost, an experiment -- an accessible, audience-friendly movie about love and sex in which the screen doesn't fade to black once the actors start taking off their clothes. Read full review
70
Village VoiceJim Ridley
There's something refreshingly frisky and celebratory about Shortbus that offsets its flaws. It's a triple-X midnight movie with a heart of squarest gold. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
An ode to the joy and sweet release of sex, the film manages to be a sincere, modest political venture that finds humor where you might least expect it, notably in a ménage à trois featuring a cheeky rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner." Read full review
70
SalonStephanie Zacharek
The sex is the most unremarkable thing about it. What surprised me most about this gentle-spirited sprawl of a movie, set in post-9/11 New York City, is what I can only call the friendly, Midwestern quality of the filmmaking. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarrit Ingman
The quest for sexual happiness is a radical notion in these repressive times, as well as a legitimate basis for storytelling, but Shortbus doesn't quite delve as deeply as it ought into its characters' emotions. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Some viewers will call the whole business pornography, though it doesn't really qualify. The sex is blunt and enthusiastic, but arousing it ain't. In fact, when Shortbus arrives on DVD, viewers may be fast-forwarding through the sex to get to the acting. Read full review
60
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Unquestionably the most sexually graphic American narrative feature ever made outside the realm of the porn industry, John Cameron Mitchell's ambitious attempt to merge his characters' active sexual lives with more conventional emotional content is playfully and provocatively entertaining for roughly the first half, but loses staying power thereafter when investment in the uncompelling characters' problems is requested. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesMark Olsen
Though it flirts with the hard-core, there is something strangely flaccid about Shortbus, a ragged, uneven quality that, however purposeful, makes it feel less than fully formed. Read full review
60
NewsweekDavid Ansen
Shortbus tends to work better in its first, comic half, than in its second, more serious stretch, where the characters' trials and tribulations flirt with soap opera. The actors, formidable with their clothes off, aren't always as expressive fully dressed. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Shortbus is chipper, it's fresh, it emits a distinct musk of controversy. I'll take the longbus. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
The film lacks the depth and discipline of Mitchell's first film venture, "Hedwig and the Angry Inch," which makes Shortbus a real disappointment. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Although Shortbus doesn't work as porn (and I don't believe it's intended to), it also doesn't work as a serious drama. The storyline is juvenile and the characters remain poorly developed and incomplete. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate Taylor
For all the carnality on offer here, Mitchell and his cast seem ambivalent about sex. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Shortbus suffers from a vague, ad lib-y script and a cast that, while hardly shy, isn't exactly charismatic. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
It runs out of energy before the end. Read full review
50
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
While the film has visual verve, its faux-Fellini finale only underscores how remote, repetitive, uninvolving and contrived the whole enterprise is. Read full review
40
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
The premise -- a roundelay of New Yorkers looking for connection, or to escape it -- feels tired, and Mitchell's portrayal of sex as the ultimate vehicle for transcendence, self-knowledge and healing, while conveyed with authentic sweetness, seems shockingly naive. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleRuthe Stein
Mitchell may be another Russ Meyer -- a dubious honor -- but he's no Tony Kushner. Read full review
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