Shame (2011)

Directed by: Steve McQueen

Handsome executive Brandon (Michael Fassbender, looking more than ever like a young Christopher Plummer) can attract beautiful women with ease, but does not enter into relationships, preferring one-night stands, hookers and porn.  He avoids contact with his only relative, fragile sister Sissy (Carey Mulligan), and is increasingly distracted at work.

He may be consuming a lot of sex, but this is the low-nutrition variety, and it cannot sustain him.  As each day passes, he seems more hollowed, and each petit mort takes on the appearance of an agonising death.

Fassbender gives an astonishing performance, disintegrating (or should that be demolishing himself?) before our eyes.  Brandon is a man utterly without human connections. Born in Ireland, raised in New Jersey and living in New York (in a luxurious yet anonymous apartment), he belongs nowhere and with no-one.

Only as his sister begins to fall to pieces, in part through his neglect, does he confront some existential questions.

Shame is both hard to watch and compelling; a great achievement achievement from all involved.