Shame

Saw Shame, a drama about sex addiction, although it's really most interested in the title character: shame. The protagonist is this James Bond-type dude with a gorgeous minimalist apartment in Manhattan. He has a six pack, douche-y friends, and some job where everyone walks around in dress shirts and pressed slacks. He skulks around this world of glass and money maintaining strict politeness and professionalism. His only source of amusement comes from pornography, but even this he consumes compulsively, joylessly. He has a deep and terrible problem with any kind of intimacy. Possibly he has sexualized all forms of intimacy, rendering casual friendships kind of creepy, or possibly emotional problems drove him to obsessively pursue physical intimacy, but whether the chicken or the egg came first, he remains alone and at sea in New York, the city that sleeps alone.

The protagonist's sister shows up wanting to reconnect and needing help of some vague type. She tries with increasing desperation to connect with him but if he can't handle casual friendships, he sure can't handle familial ones and things get scary in his apartment pretty fast. He reacts to her overtures with frustration, shouting, and physical violence. At one point he throws her on the sofa, squeezing her shoulders, while she giggles and shrieks and does everything she can to make this situation into something where he isn't just beating her up. It's a deeply sad and scary scene.

The poignancy of their relationship and of the film is that he cannot help her because he needs too much help himself. He cannot talk about this with anyone due to the crushing shame of addiction made worse by the embarrassing nature of his vice. A man addicted to sex? The jokes write themselves. This is also not at all a sexy film. It treats sex the way Leaving Las Vegas treats drinking. There is no upbeat beginning to the addiction. We're past that and into the self-destruction phase of the addiction. We hope that the protagonist can pull out of his nose-dive, but can see he is beginning a speedy descent.

The film uses some very edgy material to address familiar themes or addiction and alienation. These are deep and difficult topics however, and the film gorgeously shot and unfolds almost poetically, via knowing glances and symbols and games. It's a very pretty, very sad film.

Edit: this film also contains kind of homophobic attitudes, btw. The protagonist's lowest moment, wherein he completely gives way to his addiction, is in a gay club which is also literally the only time gay people are shown. This is using homosexuality as a stand-in for depravity and unchecked lust and that's kind of a shitty thing. Very pretty film though.