Shortbus

Shortbus (2006), John Cameron Mitchell's daring ensemble drama, is available to watch online on iFILM. Set in a New York still raw from 9/11, it gathers a handful of lonely people inside an underground Brooklyn salon where art, music, politics and sex share the same room with no walls between them.

At the center is Sofia, a couples counselor who coaches clients toward orgasm yet has never had one herself. Around her drift a gay couple weighing an open relationship, a dominatrix who can do everything but actually connect, and the salon's host, a former drag performer. Mitchell cast unknowns and shot the explicit scenes for real, but the film isn't built to shock. It's about how hard it is to reach another person honestly.

After Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Mitchell pushed further into a comedy of intimacy where nudity is a language rather than a stunt. It caused a stir at Cannes and remains one of the tenderest, most truthful indies of its decade. Adults only. Stream Shortbus (2006) online on iFILM.