Director Steve McQueen has created a harrowing depiction of sex addiction, as Shame evokes the emotions and feelings of its characters with complex wonder. McQueen’s depiction of a thirty-something struggling to cope with his own sexual desires is at once unrelenting and honest, featuring two powerhouse performances from Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan.

Fassbender plays Brandon, a successful, good-looking thirty-something living in New York City dealing with a sex-addiction that occupies his every waking minute. He seems to cope with this through a very specific routine that includes prostitutes, pornography, masturbation, one-night stands, and numerous other forms of self-gratification. The lifestyle is unhealthy, but contained. Miraculously, nobody seems to notice or suspect, as Brandon possess natural looks and charm — even when pornography is discovered on his hard drive at work, his co-workers never suspect him to be the culprit — it is when his wayward sister, Sissy (Carey Mulligan), arrives back in Brandon’s life, his contained sexual lifestyle begins to spiral out of control.

Through unrelenting honesty, McQueen delivers an utterly bleak and stripped-down film that is at once brimming with emotions, while being a study on a man who is emotionally vacant. As also seen in Hunger, McQueen creates art through stark and honest portrayals of human suffering. In both instances, Michael Fassbender has delivered unnerving performances, as he pours every fiber of his being to create truly haunting portrayals of suffering.The arrival of Sissy into Brandon’s life brings an added emotional dynamic, as Fassbender and co-writer Abi Morgan explore a very unsettling sibling relationship, as they only hint at past family issues directly, but through interactions their instability and how they deal with it separately becomes all too clear.

In a film so reliant on superb and unflinching performances, Carey Mulligan gives such a damaged and emotionally complex performance, that is on par with Fassbender’s performance, both of which are two of the best of the year. McQueen gives little background or explicit reasons for why these siblings are so damaged, instead he relies on these soul-crushing performances, and both Fassbender and Mulligan give their all to these characters. As shown with his performance in Hunger, Fassbender is unafraid as an actor, and with Shame it is clear that McQueen has found his muse. McQueen brings Fassbender and Mulligan’s performances to unparalleled lengths, both physically (they both appear nude in the film) and emotionally.

The film’s bleak and intoxicating atmosphere is aided not only by two powerhouse performances, but also by McQueen’s attention to detail. From its beautifully perfect score, to the startling cinematography of Sean Bobbit, whose long takes aided from Steve McQueen’s visionary artistry help create a very intimate and harrowing film. This is a very difficult film to stomach, as it is relentless in its psychological and emotional overtones.

Shame is an uncomfortably accurate portrayal of addiction, featuring two of the most complex and emotionally stirring performances in recent memory, that demand serious Oscar attention, regardless of the controversial NC-17 rating. This is a truly devastating and soul-wrenching film which, if one can stomach it, transcends this complex and paranoid world.

Shame was reviewed as part of The Mill Valley Film Festival, an annual event which is “a celebration of the best in independent and world cinema, MVFF brings together a community of filmmakers and film lovers in Mill Valley, San Rafael and beyond to experience amazing new films in the beautiful environment of San Francisco’s Bay Area.”

Grade: A

Rated: NC-17 (for some explicit sexual content. )

Shame opens in limited release on December 2, 2011.