---
product_id: 7881448
title: "Shortbus (Unrated Edition)"
price: "€ 63.82"
currency: EUR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 8
url: https://www.desertcart.be/products/7881448-shortbus-unrated-edition
store_origin: BE
region: Belgium
---

# Shortbus (Unrated Edition)

**Price:** € 63.82
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Shortbus (Unrated Edition)
- **How much does it cost?** € 63.82 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.be](https://www.desertcart.be/products/7881448-shortbus-unrated-edition)

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## Why This Product

- Free international shipping included
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## Description

Product Description From the director of ‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch’ comes SHORTBUS, an exploration into the lives of several characters living in present-day New York as they navigate the comic and tragic intersections between love and sex. Male and female, straight and gay, the characters find one another – and eventually find themselves – when they all converge at a weekly underground salon called "Shortbus," a mad world of art, music, politics, and polysexual carnality. One of the true sensations of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, presents sex and sexuality as never before seen in mainstream entertainment, and promises to be one of the most talked-about films for months – and years – to come. desertcart.com In his aim to make an honest film about sex, John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) has taken a somewhat documentary approach to Shortbus, a film describing various New Yorkers' sexual pathos. Framed by shots roving a homemade diorama of the city, Shortbus is comprised of vignettes featuring actors who helped craft this story of people's disconnect in sexual endeavors. Jamie (PJ DeBoy) and James (Paul Dawson), a gay couple experiencing a lull in their relationship, visit Sophia (Sook-Yin Lee), a sex therapist whose inability to orgasm results in her clients inviting her to a sex club after which the film is titled. Sophia's husband, Rob (Raphael Barker), is also willing to experiment, so the two independently embark on adventures in self-pleasure. Dominatrix Severin (Lindsay Beamish) plays a crucial role in Sophia and Rob's lives, as her search for real humanity overlaps with their desire for passion. As each character's plot complicates, the viewer sees a similar melancholy bulldozing its way into these seemingly disparate lives. The depression is repeatedly used in comedic scenes, such as when James is asked on a date while still hospitalized for his attempted suicide. Yo La Tengo's score, which includes Animal Collective among others, lends this film a graceful ambience. Unlike porn, Shortbus has a resonance that encourages the viewer to consider one's own sex life as an important aspect of happiness. --Trinie Dalton

Review: Breakthrough Masterpiece - Shortbus is the dream child of writer/director John Cameron Mitchell, who brought us the delightful film, Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Mr. Mitchell wanted his next film to be about sex and sexuality and he had seen foreign films where the actors actually had sex on screen as part of the film, but he had not known of any English-language ones. He wanted to make the first, and what he has come up with is a delightful essay of a small group of people's sexual problems and their attempts to remedy those problems. This is a not-rated movie and the viewer immediately finds out why. The opening shot is of the head of Lady Liberty in New York City with the soundtrack belting out the words, "Is you is or is you not my baby? The way you have been acting leaves me doubt." As the song goes on the camera sails through the windows of several people's bedrooms while they are engaged in the most intimate of moments. In the first zoom through a window the audience sees a naked semi-erect man sitting in a bath tub taking film footage of his penis. Next we zoom through the window of an S&M hooker spraying off her assortment of dildos while being questioned by her john. Then we zoom back to the first man who is now filming himself trying to perform fellatio on himself. Next we zoom through the window in an apartment where a man is performing cunnilingus on an oriental woman who is sitting naked on a grand piano and then the couple goes through a wide assortment of gymnastic contortions of sexual intimacy. Zoom into apartment #4 and you see a good looking man watching the guy in the first apartment filming his oral feat. Finally all of the scenes end with orgasmic conclusions including our john with the S&M Dominatrix Hooker shooting his load onto a Sydney Pollack-style painting where it strangely seems to fit in. At first the viewer is shocked, but isn't this really closer to real life than what is typically portrayed? It seemed refreshingly frank. It turns out that the man who was trying the acrobatic fellatio, James (Paul Dawson), has a gay lover, Jamie (P J DeBoy). His lover is very attached to him, but James is pushing away in the relationship, wanting more. James wants them to try an open relationship. The oriental lady, Sofia (Sook-Yin Lee) with the acrobatic lover on the piano, is a sex therapist who has been faking her orgasms with her lover and actually in fact had never had one in her life. James and Jamie come to her for sexual relationship advice and through that relationship they find Shortbus, a large home whose owner, Justin Bond, describes the place as, "You know school busses. This is the shortbus. This is a salon for the gifted and challenged!" It features a wide variety of environments, all equally bizarre, including a sex party room. There is a cabaret room, a lesbian bar, and a very diverse group of people including the former mayor of New York. In this environment all of the principle characters introduced in the opening scenes work on their sexual problems. Sofia hooks up with the S&M Hooker, Seve (Lindsay Beamish). As the hooker said, "I will help you discover how to have an orgasm and you can teach me how to have a real human interaction with someone." James and Jamie find Seth a handsome man for a three-way romance, and the voyeur even finds a relationship fulfilled. The film ends in a carnival atmosphere where the Cabaret vocalist is singing, "We all get it in the end," to the accompaniment of a marching polka band. Did I say the environment of Shortbus is a little bizarre? However, Shortbus is a dramatic story of sexual conflicts and people trying to solve them. I heartily recommend it. Actually I was in the hospital the first time I saw the film and it got my heart going again! Perhaps it will perform miracles for you as well. Gary Kaufman
Review: Absolutely incredible! - I don't know if any of you heard the hoopla that was going around about this film, or even if you heard of it at all, but here it is in a nutshell: John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) wanted to make a movie that doesn't turn sex into a dirty thing but at the same time doesn't hide sex either. The big controversy over Shortbus is the fact that it definitely does NOT hide the sex. It's all there in it's full glory with full penetration and everything...even an orgy or two. Now that that's out of the way...Shortbus is not a porn movie. It's not even one of those high class Michael Lucas porn movies that have stories in between all the sex. What it is is a story about a handful of people who meet each other and who are all broken in some way. The sex therapist who has never had an orgasm. The former hustler who thinks he's only worth what people paid for him. The dominatrix who longs to be an artist and live in a house. They all meet and revolve around each other in a search for themselves. And it's a fun movie and frank and open and it celebrates life and sex and living... I'm torn about the actual sex in the movie, however. I think the movie would've been just as effective--and much more palatable to the wide audience that it deserves--without the full on sex but at the same time the sex was part of the story and woven into it so well that you really don't think about it. You're certainly not going to be getting off to it even with the full on penetration and fellatio and rimming--including one hilarious scene where three characters are having sex and they all start singing the Star Spangled Banner...one of them singing the song into the posterior of one of the others!--and S&M, etc. Regardless of that I honestly think this was an incredible film. When it was over I felt good and I can't say that about many movies. If you're open minded and not put off by people having actual sex in a non pornographic film definitely check Shortbus out. It was an amazing film and definitely worth watching.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| ASIN  | B000LAZDQA |
| Actors  | Lindsay Beamish, PJ DeBoy, Paul Dawson, Raphael Barker, Sook-Yin Lee |
| Aspect Ratio  | 1.78:1 |
| Best Sellers Rank | #36,919 in Movies & TV ( See Top 100 in Movies & TV ) #5,628 in Drama DVDs |
| Customer Reviews | 4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars (838) |
| Director  | John Cameron Mitchell |
| Is Discontinued By Manufacturer  | No |
| Language  | English (Dolby Digital 5.1), Unqualified |
| MPAA rating  | Unrated (Not Rated) |
| Media Format  | Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby |
| Number of discs  | 1 |
| Package Dimensions  | 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches; 0.32 ounces |
| Run time  | 1 hour and 41 minutes |
| Studio  | Velocity / Thinkfilm |
| Subtitles:  | French, Spanish |

## Product Details

- **Format:** Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby
- **Genre:** Drama
- **Language:** English
- **Runtime:** 1 hour and 41 minutes

## Images

![Shortbus (Unrated Edition) - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71aOqNqD7xL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Breakthrough Masterpiece
*by G***N on February 11, 2008*

Shortbus is the dream child of writer/director John Cameron Mitchell, who brought us the delightful film, Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Mr. Mitchell wanted his next film to be about sex and sexuality and he had seen foreign films where the actors actually had sex on screen as part of the film, but he had not known of any English-language ones. He wanted to make the first, and what he has come up with is a delightful essay of a small group of people's sexual problems and their attempts to remedy those problems. This is a not-rated movie and the viewer immediately finds out why. The opening shot is of the head of Lady Liberty in New York City with the soundtrack belting out the words, "Is you is or is you not my baby? The way you have been acting leaves me doubt." As the song goes on the camera sails through the windows of several people's bedrooms while they are engaged in the most intimate of moments. In the first zoom through a window the audience sees a naked semi-erect man sitting in a bath tub taking film footage of his penis. Next we zoom through the window of an S&M hooker spraying off her assortment of dildos while being questioned by her john. Then we zoom back to the first man who is now filming himself trying to perform fellatio on himself. Next we zoom through the window in an apartment where a man is performing cunnilingus on an oriental woman who is sitting naked on a grand piano and then the couple goes through a wide assortment of gymnastic contortions of sexual intimacy. Zoom into apartment #4 and you see a good looking man watching the guy in the first apartment filming his oral feat. Finally all of the scenes end with orgasmic conclusions including our john with the S&M Dominatrix Hooker shooting his load onto a Sydney Pollack-style painting where it strangely seems to fit in. At first the viewer is shocked, but isn't this really closer to real life than what is typically portrayed? It seemed refreshingly frank. It turns out that the man who was trying the acrobatic fellatio, James (Paul Dawson), has a gay lover, Jamie (P J DeBoy). His lover is very attached to him, but James is pushing away in the relationship, wanting more. James wants them to try an open relationship. The oriental lady, Sofia (Sook-Yin Lee) with the acrobatic lover on the piano, is a sex therapist who has been faking her orgasms with her lover and actually in fact had never had one in her life. James and Jamie come to her for sexual relationship advice and through that relationship they find Shortbus, a large home whose owner, Justin Bond, describes the place as, "You know school busses. This is the shortbus. This is a salon for the gifted and challenged!" It features a wide variety of environments, all equally bizarre, including a sex party room. There is a cabaret room, a lesbian bar, and a very diverse group of people including the former mayor of New York. In this environment all of the principle characters introduced in the opening scenes work on their sexual problems. Sofia hooks up with the S&M Hooker, Seve (Lindsay Beamish). As the hooker said, "I will help you discover how to have an orgasm and you can teach me how to have a real human interaction with someone." James and Jamie find Seth a handsome man for a three-way romance, and the voyeur even finds a relationship fulfilled. The film ends in a carnival atmosphere where the Cabaret vocalist is singing, "We all get it in the end," to the accompaniment of a marching polka band. Did I say the environment of Shortbus is a little bizarre? However, Shortbus is a dramatic story of sexual conflicts and people trying to solve them. I heartily recommend it. Actually I was in the hospital the first time I saw the film and it got my heart going again! Perhaps it will perform miracles for you as well. Gary Kaufman

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Absolutely incredible!
*by C***E on January 4, 2007*

I don't know if any of you heard the hoopla that was going around about this film, or even if you heard of it at all, but here it is in a nutshell: John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) wanted to make a movie that doesn't turn sex into a dirty thing but at the same time doesn't hide sex either. The big controversy over Shortbus is the fact that it definitely does NOT hide the sex. It's all there in it's full glory with full penetration and everything...even an orgy or two. Now that that's out of the way...Shortbus is not a porn movie. It's not even one of those high class Michael Lucas porn movies that have stories in between all the sex. What it is is a story about a handful of people who meet each other and who are all broken in some way. The sex therapist who has never had an orgasm. The former hustler who thinks he's only worth what people paid for him. The dominatrix who longs to be an artist and live in a house. They all meet and revolve around each other in a search for themselves. And it's a fun movie and frank and open and it celebrates life and sex and living... I'm torn about the actual sex in the movie, however. I think the movie would've been just as effective--and much more palatable to the wide audience that it deserves--without the full on sex but at the same time the sex was part of the story and woven into it so well that you really don't think about it. You're certainly not going to be getting off to it even with the full on penetration and fellatio and rimming--including one hilarious scene where three characters are having sex and they all start singing the Star Spangled Banner...one of them singing the song into the posterior of one of the others!--and S&M, etc. Regardless of that I honestly think this was an incredible film. When it was over I felt good and I can't say that about many movies. If you're open minded and not put off by people having actual sex in a non pornographic film definitely check Shortbus out. It was an amazing film and definitely worth watching.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ What an amazing little film
*by J***S on May 7, 2007*

Was lucky enough to catch this in a tiny screening the week it opened and instantly knew I had to own this film as soon as it was available. There has never been an opening sequence shot with such frankness in main-stream film. Once you adjust to the explicit nature of this movie and realize that the film's unapologetic presentation of real people having real sex is actually a wonderful vehicle to instantly, intimately connect with these characters on all levels that are open and human, you start to settle into a beautiful movie about people just trying to integrate - to connect with something outside of their self, their work, their ideas - to find that elusive moment of equanimity. The ride has great ups and downs - plenty of moments for laughs, tears and titillation. The end of the film is also shot in incredibly beautiful simplicity (this scene thematically reminded me of the end of Hedwig - James Cameron Mitchell is so good at taking the viewer right to the precipice of change/acceptance along side the main character - impossible to see his films without taking away some personal insight). This movie reminds us all that it takes darkness to see stars and silence to hear music. The bonus materials on the DVD are great too - the "making of scenes" are a must view. I just wish they had included a segment on the animation in the film like they did on the Hedwig DVD.

## Frequently Bought Together

- Shortbus (Unrated Edition) [DVD]
- Caligula (Uncut Edition)
- Nymphomaniac 1 & 2

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*Product available on Desertcart Belgium*
*Store origin: BE*
*Last updated: 2026-05-04*