"Shame is excellent filmmaking about something movies don't often discuss—the weird dance between attraction and release and disgust that powers the world in which we all live."

Um, can you be a little more specific? I mean, if the movie's short on plot, couldn't you at least have devoted two sentences to it?

@1 Not everyone wants spoilers.

i saw the trailer for this film and it does intrigue me... plus i think fassbender has great screen presence. if you have time you should view "hunger" and "fish tank".

Visibly on-screen penises are NC-17 now?
Times have changed since Midnight Cowboy!

Penises have been X or NC17 for at least 30 years now. Are you new to America, Auntie G? I don't even remember penises in Midnight Cowboy. I thought that was X for having homosexual subject matter.

@5: No, I'm not new to America. I was born and raised here all my life.
I just haven't seen a lot of penises openly visible in movies or on television as you may have, which is why I commented. I don't even have a TV. It really doesn't matter to me; you see one dick, you've pretty much seen 'em all.

By the way, the subject content of Midnight Cowboy, which was rated X for nudity, drug use and sexual content in 1969 actually had little to do with homosexuality except for one scene in a movie theatre (Joe Buck was desperate for money, not because he was hotly attracted to the nerdy kid giving him a blow job). Are you new to the films of John Schlesinger?

Some comments here are strange? Nice review and I do think this is a spoiler, an appetizer rather.