Cake

What if we experienced life with our minds as well as our bodies, without boundaries? Would that give us the will to live? John Cameron Mitchell invites us into his colorful view of New York City to remind us that we are not alone and that sexual expression can provide an alternative picture of love and life.

The movie starts with a look into the lives of three characters who all seem sexually confident and satisfied. Some of the most explicit shots of the whole film occur in the first 30 seconds. We see a couple doing it in a million positions, a dominatrix preparing for a session with a client, and a solo yoga session that ends in an orgasmic plow pose, if you can picture that one.

As fluid as it all may look from the outside, it turns out that these sexually flexible characters are all looking for more. From the inside out we find learn that their alter-egos are: a therapist with a very big secret, a loner who lives in a polaroid posted storage space, and a depressed young man making a weighty film for his lover. Who can save them all? Enter, the glamourous Justin Bond - real life NY entertainer and on-screen hostess of Shortbus - a home / party / performance space where all are invited.

And who wouldn't want to join in?! The bohemian wonderland is warm and friendly, filled with costumes and performance and festivities. There's an orgy room filled with couples making love 60's style - with hope and connection and revolution in the air. The guests are old, young, skinny, fat, straight, queer, male, female, trans - all connected by accepting one another as sexual beings. By meeting and partying together the guests make friendships that they explore outside the Shortbus walls.

While the movie is fictional, the script was developed through over two and a half years of improv workshops with the actors so the characters are complex and real. Some beautiful moments that New Yorkers will know more intimately than others include getting caught in the blackout, a discussion of the NY AIDS crisis, Artstar JD of Le Tigre, and a CAKE like party scene. Mitchell calls the movie a: "love letter to New York and a small act of resistance against Bush and the America we live in because it's trying to remind people of good things about America and New York, i.e. a refuge for those who aren't accepted elsewhere, a place of personal expression, not just tolerance but acceptance of diversity, individual freedom..."

Sure, you see some sex scenes that you wouldn't normally see outside of a porn video, but in the end it's more about what you see when you leave the theatre. Intimacy is hard, connection is hard, being alone is hard, but sexuality can be a way to access basic human emotion and the female orgasm is revolutionary. It's shot in a low-budget diy inspired style, with a simple but urgent call to make the world around us just as open and beautiful as the one on screen.

Comment below if you would attend VIP CAKE SCREENING of SHORTBUS before it gets released and we'll see if we can MAKE IT HAPPEN!