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Shortbus (2006)
American writer-director John Cameron Mitchell followed up the hit indie musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch with this sunnily sex-positive dramedy, set in a fantasyland New York that, as one sequence strongly suggests, is powered by orgasms. The title refers to a salon-type club where urban dwellers of all persuasions come to discuss politics, bliss out to the acoustic flutterings of Animal Collective’s Sung Tongs, and above all roll on condoms. In theory, it’s a nice antidote to the typically dour French erotic narrative strung along by unsimulated activity, but in reality it’s a little too cutesy. Mitchell would go on to make the disgusting-sounding—but nonetheless prestige-safe—Nicole Kidman showcase Rabbit Hole.