Review

It was hard to imagine that Michael Fassbender could top his performance in 2008's Hunger - Steve McQueen (II)'s directorial debut - but damned if he doesn't give it a try. Fassbender went on a medically monitored crash diet for his riveting portrayal of real-life Irish hunger strike leader Bobby Sands. Though he doesn't end up looking like a skeleton at the end of this film, the role of Brandon is just as physically and emotionally demanding. In Shame, he lays bare both his body and his soul to give us a look inside the mind, heart and libido of a seemingly normal New Yorker with a dangerous sexual addiction.

Anyone with similar appetites will be able to relate (I certainly did, and I don't have even half the compulsion or stamina of the character). With crisp, technically marvelous cinematography and utterly captivating single-shot takes (don't miss Carey Mulligan's haunting rendition of "New York, New York" or her late-in-the-film confrontation with Fassbender), Steve McQueen (II) gives us such an intimate view of his characters that it is hard not to understand their impulses and simply hope for the best.

 -- Robert O'Neill