In Shortbus, Mitchell and his actors may have started out with the determination to show us a side of character we don't generally see, but their notions of character turn out to be so conventional that the sexual proclivities are reabsorbed and neutralized. The sexual acts we witness are simply too coordinated with these conventional characterizations.

Even if you have not seen these specific characters before, they have a very "Hollywood" shape: the former hustler who's suicidal because he can't feel his boyfriend's devotion; the dominatrix who longs for unmediated, unstaged contact with other people; the couples counselor who has never had an orgasm. These three, and their various partners, come together, so to speak, at an orgy house called Shortbus presided over by a semi-transvestite hostess (played by Justin Bond, the drag half of the retro lounge act Kiki & Herb), where they learn about themselves, find the help they need, and get past false breakthroughs to real ones.

If nothing else, you will never see a movie that is more idealistic about the potential of public group sex. What I believe people quickly learn at orgies, however, is that if they go in seeking anything besides getting off, that is, if they go in looking for a lifemate, happiness, salvation, whatever, they're bound to be disappointed, and they may not even get laid. Of course, sexual exploration can be part of a process in which a person finds any or all of the above, but the hardcore sex at Shortbus doesn't have the haphazard, recreational quality such encounters have in life.

Thus, for example, the hustler's problem with intimacy is symbolized by his inability to let himself be buttfucked (as if any gay man who doesn't want to do this must have a psychological block against it). The boy who saves him from suicide is the first to penetrate him and, as a result, his life is turned around. Sorry, but that's just putting the corn in cornhole — as a matter of narrative aesthetics nothing to cheer about. In fact, the only good thing about this episode is pornographic: the hustler is hot and the boy is really cute. We hardly need the inducement of this formulaic storytelling to watch them go at it. (Altogether, the participants at Shortbus are better looking than you're likely to find at any public sex club, and much less drugged out.)