Shortbus | Rotten Tomatoes (2024)

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69%

Tomatometer

126 Reviews

77%

Popcornmeter

50,000+ Ratings

John Cameron Mitchell's SHORTBUS explores the lives of several emotionally challenged characters as they navigate the comic and tragic intersections between love and sex in and around a modern-day underground salon. A sex therapist who has never had an orgasm, a dominatrix who is unable to connect, a gay couple who are deciding whether to open up their relationship, and the people who weave in and out of their lives, all converge on a weekly gathering called Shortbus: a mad nexus of art, music, politics, and polysexual carnality. Set in a post-9/11, Bush-exhausted New York City, SHORTBUS tells its story with sexual frankness, suggesting new ways to reconcile questions of the mind, pleasures of the flesh, and imperatives of the heart.

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Shortbus

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Critics Consensus

The sex may be explicit, but Mitchell integrates it into the characters' lives and serves the whole story up with a generous dose of sweetness and wit.

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Critics Reviews

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Mark Bourne

Film.com

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.

Mar 4, 2008

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Melissa Anderson

Time Out

Rated: 5/6

Feb 3, 2007

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Stella Papamichael

BBC.com

Everything comes to a head in a touchy-feely climax (if you catch our drift) where, ironically, it isn't the strong sex but all the singing and handholding that's the real turn-off.

Rated: 2/5

Nov 30, 2006

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Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

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.

Rated: 3.5/4

Feb 15, 2023

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Dennis Harvey

48 Hills

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

Feb 11, 2022

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Frank J. Avella

Edge Media Network

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.

Rated: A

Feb 7, 2022

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Audience Reviews

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Dan J I’ve always been rather self conscious of being tall thin avg guy with avg appendage- but SHORTBUS made me realize everyone has something they don’t like about themselves and now I have a “fuck em’ if they can’t like me for myself!” Great movie. Rated 5/5 Stars • Rated 5 out of 5 stars 10/06/24 Full Review Courtney K for as much as this revolves around sex, I actually didn't think it came off as a sleazy exploitation in-the-name-of-art type film like I was sort of expecting. there's enough substance to it. that being said, was it great? also not really, lol. Rated 2/5 Stars • Rated 2 out of 5 stars 06/03/24 Full Review Georgan G Nice to see human sexuality as part of the larger plot, from a whole individual, to all other combinations of love & sensuality. Some will see this as shocking, while others embrace the openness portrayed here. Rated 3.5/5 Stars • Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 08/04/23 Full Review Jens B The real Sex and the City. Oh, and this has one of the greatest opening sequences of all time. Rated 3/5 Stars • Rated 3 out of 5 stars 11/19/22 Full Review william d Various people indulging in, and doing a great deal of navel-gazing about, sex. Maybe you'll find that more interesting than I did. Rated 2/5 Stars • Rated 2 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member Interesting script and overall outline does not measure up to the amateurish acting and direction Rated 1.5/5 Stars • Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 01/30/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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Cast & Crew

John Cameron Mitchell Director Sook-Yin Lee Sofia Paul Dawson James Lindsay Beamish Severin PJ DeBoy Jamie Raphael Barker Rob

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Shortbus

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Synopsis John Cameron Mitchell's SHORTBUS explores the lives of several emotionally challenged characters as they navigate the comic and tragic intersections between love and sex in and around a modern-day underground salon. A sex therapist who has never had an orgasm, a dominatrix who is unable to connect, a gay couple who are deciding whether to open up their relationship, and the people who weave in and out of their lives, all converge on a weekly gathering called Shortbus: a mad nexus of art, music, politics, and polysexual carnality. Set in a post-9/11, Bush-exhausted New York City, SHORTBUS tells its story with sexual frankness, suggesting new ways to reconcile questions of the mind, pleasures of the flesh, and imperatives of the heart.

Director: John Cameron Mitchell
Producer: Howard Gertler, John Cameron Mitchell, Tim Perell
Screenwriter: John Cameron Mitchell, John Cameron Mitchell
Production Co: Q Television, Process Film, THINKFilm, Fortissimo Films
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 6, 2006, Limited
Rerelease Date (Theaters): Jan 26, 2022
Release Date (DVD): Mar 13, 2007
Runtime: 1h 42m