Director/Actor Best Film #11: McQueen & Fassbender

12YAS for best film, Shame for best performance

Hunger by far.

Shame is a bad film that has absolutely zero depth to it and Fassbender's performance in it is the textbook definition of posturing masquerading as intensity. 12 Years a Slave is a good film but no characters in it save for Solomon have any sort of depth or nuance to them; it's like watching clockwork caricatures. Fassbender is also very much not good in it.

Shame. I thank this film for introducing Fassbender's glorious body and cock to the world.

I’ve seen other people say this, but I have to disagree. I think the film has something to say about addiction as a response to trauma, how “shame” festers in solitude and feeds the addiction, and how the pull of addiction still lingers even after a sobering experience that demands self-correction.

Also disagree about Fassbender’s performance - for me I think he believably conveys self-loathing while also being charming but awkward at times when the character is forced to be personable, like normal life seems “inconvenient” to him. I also like how he plays the sibling dynamic with Mulligan, where it’s alternately playful and frustrated. It’s one of Fassbender’s best, most resonant performances imo