Shame: Press reviews

'It's wonderful to have a film with so little explanation.'

'Brave, beautifully acted and emotionally revealing — an early strong contender for the most provocative and compelling film of the year.'

'Powerful and without compromise'

'Steve McQueen's second feature of sex-addiction, self-harm and cheap thrills in New York is fluid, rigorous, serious cinema'

'Shame is a disturbing film that penetrates our minds and gets beneath our skins as we try to understand its characters.'

'This will leave you pondering it long after the credits have rolled.'

'It reconfirms McQueen as a filmmaker with an unflinching, microscopic gaze on the world.'

'Shame is a highly organised and polished piece of work but it is not only not erotic, it is oddly uninvolving altogether.'

'Skin-deep substance means Shame ultimately lacks stamina. Don't take your eyes off McQueen and Fassbender for a second, though.'

'The movie, for all its displays of honesty (which is to say nudity), is also curiously coy.'

'We never learn anything about Brandon that we haven't picked up in the mesmeric opening half-hour, so Shame at times seems like a video art projec.'

'While Shame has style to spare, it isn't as well-written, entertaining or socially aware as it pretends to be. Which is, indeed, a shame.'