Shortbus - Movie Reviews (2024)

What makes Shortbus unusual for an American movie is that it isn't frightened of sex, it doesn't reduce the act to insensitive frat boy gyrations, and it doesn't employ it as a bludgeoning weapon.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 15, 2023

It’s a disarmingly sweet movie about dysfunctionality and connection.

Full Review | Feb 11, 2022

the film is just as bold and startling as when it first came out maybe more so, because we have become more puritanical when it comes to depicting sexual situations onscreen, even in indie films.

Full Review | Original Score: A | Feb 7, 2022

An exuberant, audacious and deeply poignant film that crosses lines and shatters barriers with exhilaratingly untrammeled glee.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 6, 2019

Shortbus could stand to lose 30 minutes off its flabbily melancholic denouement.

Full Review | Mar 1, 2018

Those with small bus issues, cast aside your inadequacies and embrace the juicy pumping heart of this oddly sweet film.

Full Review | Aug 23, 2017

In Mitchell's casting-a roster of unknowns results in uneven performances that border on bad sometimes, yet he manages to keep it all on track.

Full Review | Jul 11, 2016

This isn't an exploit into pornographic ideals, but a movie with genuine ideas that are completely freed from political correctness.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Nov 11, 2013

Genuinely enlivening

Full Review | Aug 28, 2009

Director John Cameron Mitchell ("Hedwig and The Angry Inch") flaunts cinematic tradition with a raucous sex comedy filled with truly shocking sex acts that underscore his vision of New York as a playground of debauchery.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Apr 24, 2009

Shortbus is not, above all, 'dirty.' What it is, in fact, is a nice movie, one of the nicest to come down the pike since March of the Penguins.

Full Review | Mar 4, 2008

"Shortbus" flips through varying moods with overall success, fleshing out the characters who show flesh.

Full Review | Original Score: A | Jul 23, 2007

Incredibly sexy without being titilating, this is a very well crafted flick that deserves a bigger audience than it will inevitably receive.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Jun 21, 2007

Fetishists are people, too!

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Mar 31, 2007

The characters' lack of any real substance--it's really only all about attitude--make one gradually lose interest until the next in flagrante delicto moment.

Full Review | Mar 1, 2007

a project that has brains as well as bravado. It's also very funny, which helps to diffuse much of the nervousness that its graphic sex scenes might inspire in viewers. ...an imaginative, involving and ultimately touching story.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 22, 2007

Bajo la piel de una pel%uFFFDcula sexualmente muy expl%uFFFDcita hay un delicado y sensible estudio de personajes, sus relaciones, sus frustraciones, y una irreverente y fresca mirada a la Nueva York pos-11 de setiembre.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 13, 2007

Full Review | Original Score: 5/6 | Feb 3, 2007

The hallmarks of a true collaboration between the director and his actors are everywhere, and their performances are what raise the film above any of its shortcomings.

Full Review | Jan 31, 2007

If you want to explore the ideas of love and emotional permeability while seeing a narratively complex world of sexual self-exploration to which few are privy, then this is the movie for you. Otherwise, run for your life.

Full Review | Jan 31, 2007