Shame 2011

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: In a movie era remarkable for its reluctance to dramatize erotic intimacy, Shame merits praise for the dark energy of its sexual encounters. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: There's a misery in Fassbender that's spellbinding. I rolled my eyes for most of "Shame.'' But never at him. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: Fassbender's performance here is riveting, haunting. He immerses himself and makes you feel as if you're truly watching a man hell-bent on exorcising his demons through compulsive self-destruction. Read more

Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies: One shot of a shattered Brandon standing in the rain without a clue of where to turn gets more done than any of McQueen's flourishes, frankly. But you can't blame a onetime conceptual artist for trying... Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: How can visual pleasure communicate existential misery? It is a real and interesting challenge, and if "Shame" falls short of meeting it, the seriousness of its effort is hard to deny. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: One thing's for sure: McQueen has found his De Niro, and he better keep him close. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Much of the film is banal or pretentious, or both -- vacuous vignettes about emptiness. Occasionally, though, those vignettes burst into life and burn with consuming fire. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Ultimately "Shame" emerges as a sex tragedy, and a story without an end; it stays with you, like the film's frequent cold rain, hard to watch and harder to forget. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: When you're managed to make being Michael Fassbender and bedding beautiful women nonstop seem like a waking nightmare, you've accomplished something. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: What elevates the material is McQueen's impressionistic approach to depicting Fassbender's life of inescapable need. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: [Fassbender is] so good as a man completely lost to his baser impulses that it makes "Shame" worth sitting through. Enjoying? That's a relative term. But you'll certainly appreciate it. Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: This one simply recycles art-movie cliches about urban alienation and passionless sex. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: There is a good movie to be made about someone like Brandon, especially with someone like Fassbender, a performer of exceptional technical facility and a fascinating sense of reserve. McQueen's isn't quite it. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: [A] graphic and spontaneous portrait of a spiraling sex addict. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Shame is something of a dirty date that leaves you wondering what went wrong. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: The biggest surprise in Shame is how distanced, passionless, and merely skin-deep the director's attention is - how little he cares about the subject of his own movie. Read more

Eric D. Snider, Film.com: Despite the impression you may have gotten strolling some of the Internet's more giggly avenues, the most riveting part of Michael Fassbender's anatomy in Shame is his face. Read more

Laremy Legel, Film.com: It's a tribute to McQueen's steady directorial hand that he's able to evoke such exceptional performances. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: Strong stuff on the sexual wild side from bold director Steve McQueen and the extraordinary Michael Fassbender. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: This is a psychologically claustrophobic film that strips its characters bare literally and figuratively, leaving them, and us, nowhere to hide. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: You don't just watch Shame: You feel it, too. Read more

David Thomson, The New Republic: The film's numb attitude assumes that Brandon's problem is beyond reach or rescue. So why are we watching, except for high-tone misery and something close to pornography? Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: Fassbender, who was, frankly, much sexier and more devilish in "X-Men: First Class," is required to spend much of his time staring with blank intensity into the middle distance. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: "Shame" is all about weakness and compulsion. It's not about the joy of sex. It's about the utter despair it can't conceal. Read more

Mark Jenkins, NPR: It was frantic sex that earned Shame an NC-17 rating, but this arty drama is mostly slow and methodical. And thoroughly unsexy. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: These characters are stripped bare in every sense, reflecting an extreme degree of inner confusion, vulnerability and fear. Betrayed and broken as children, they now have to define and rebuild themselves as adults. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: A grim and arty drama that more than earns its NC-17 rating. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: It's the study of a man whose soul has been peeled away, like coring an apple. But I wouldn't call it sexy -- or entertaining. What does Brandon learn? What do we learn? Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: McQueen finds the exquisite tension between the brother wanting to disconnect and the sister longing for connection. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: McQueen has taken an unflinching and non-judgmental view of sexual addiction in Shame. This is sex without emotion, nudity without titillation, and climaxes without satisfaction. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: On a par with "Midnight Cowboy." Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: This is a great act of filmmaking and acting. I don't believe I would be able to see it twice. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: There's no easy way to shake off Shame. It gets in your head. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: A visual and sonic symphony, and a Dante-esque journey through a New York nightworld where words are mostly useless or worse. Read more

Amy Biancolli, San Francisco Chronicle: Shame has a lolling pace and stunning visual clarity. Structurally, it's close to perfect. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: This sleek-looking but curiously unfocused character study never quite gets down to the business of showing us who Brandon is, but boy, does Fassbender make him into a captivating enigma. Read more

Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The film is a raw, unsparing look at the downside of humanity. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Yes, this is an affecting picture that leaves the viewer as wrung out as the protagonist. No doubt you'll be seduced but, in the end, you may also feel abandoned. Read more

Leah Rozen, TheWrap: This is an undernourished drama likely to leave most viewers muttering a puzzled "huh?" as they exit the theater. Read more

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: It reconfirms McQueen as a filmmaker with an unflinching, microscopic gaze on the world. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: The wisdom of Shame is that it offers no easy exit for this prison of the mind. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Fassbender's portrayal is truly haunting, and when he sobs, dramatically unraveling, it's clear he's imprisoned by his physical urges. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: Few filmmakers have plumbed the soul-churning depths of sexual addiction as fearlessly as British director Steve McQueen has in Shame. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Was that an angel of hope riding to work on the Lexington Avenue local? Does the Lord really live in this cold, ethereal New York City? And is anyone even interested? Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: What movies so often relegate to the margins of pornography or sophomoric titillation is radically redefined here, stripped of its erotic charge and depicted as a numbing erasure of life and emotion. Read more