What can I even say or write about this? So much (e)ink has already been spilled. It's a devastating, essential film. It deserves all the praise it got. Steve McQueen is not a gentle or heart-warming director, Shame and Hunger are equally confrontational. But I think this one is so stunning because of its honesty about something that Hollywood has often softened in its portrayals. I'm not saying always, but I am saying often. (Cough cough Gone with the Wind cough) I feel like this is what really drives McQueen, bringing atypical candor and brutality to situations that may have been portrayed (the Irish troubles, sex addiction/sexual dysfunction) in a blunted, Hollywood fashion heretofore.
In any case, it's a beautiful film, it's a hard to watch film, it's an interesting film, and it's a painful film. It is perhaps the first and last time I was not distracted by Fassbender's beautiful face because the character he was playing was so vile and the story was about so much more than his character. I don't know what else to write. I cried. I felt bad about life for a while. I kept going.
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