Shame was very well received by the critics on its 2011, with many praising Michael Fassbender’s performance (and his penis) as a sex addict. However not everyone was impressed, and that includes James Franco.
In his regular column for VICE, he writes, ‘He wasn’t such an addict in my opinion, though. I mean, what did he do? Watch porn and screw a handful of people a week? I could point to quite a few folks who do that. And that scene where he’s at his lowest point and wants to fuck and goes into a gay club, and it’s depicted like the seventh level of hell… I mean, it goes back to the horrible representations of gays in the 70s, where the gay club is meant to signify everything dark and depraved. Then the guy gets a minor blowjob, from, Oh no, a man! The horror!’
He’s right about the gay club, as there is an element that it’s been okay when he was just screwing chicks, but he’s sunk as low as you can get when he wants a BJ from a guy. Sure he’s a straight man so it does show how strong the need for some sort of sexual release is, but the film does make it seem it’s the gayness that’s the issue.
Obviously James Franco is clueless that sex addiction isn’t really about sex but emotional dysfunction which was very well depicted in the movie when it showed that he couldn’t connect with anyone