'Shortbus' on Mainstream Route to Explicit Sex

Oct. 6, 2006 — -- You're likely to leave the theater after seeing "Shortbus" feeling as if you've seen it all -- sex from every angle, sex with any combination of participants, sex you thought only existed in urban legend -- and still the film is not intended to turn you on.

Filmmaker John Cameron Mitchell -- the writer, director and star of the acclaimed "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" -- pushes the limits of mainstream movies in his new film, which features real -- not simulated -- sex that's as explicit as hardcore porn yet hardly designed for that market.

"This film isn't meant to be a one-night stand," Mitchell tells ABCNEWS.com. "If you leave the theater, and you're only thinking about sex, then you have a problem. Instead, we're looking at the emotion and feelings and hangups that are attached to sex."

Still, 15 minutes into this film you'll see one couple who basically attempts to illustrate every page of "The Joy of Sex" and another very limber man who pleasures himself in a way that might have men rushing to yoga class.

But the film's plot twists and comic dialogue are more reminiscent of the eccentrically neurotic New Yorkers in a Woody Allen movie, only these characters tangle with whips, remote control vibrators and a sex salon called "Shortbus," where anything goes.

And who goes to such a club? A sex therapist (Sook-Yin Lee) in search of her first orgasm, a dominatrix (Lindsay Beamish) longing for a lasting relationship, and a gay couple in a committed relationship weighing whether to open their relationship to a third.

But unlike a porn movie, the sex comes with emotional consequences.

"Everybody is trying to feel something; everyone is trying to feel an emotional connection," says Mitchell. "I'm trying to use sex as a way to explain these characters, and that's not done too often in contemporary American films."

Most amazingly, the film, which is unrated, is set to hit more than 200 theaters across the United States by the end of the month, including the top 40 media markets, after premiering Wednesday in New York to largely positive reviews.

Variety has called the film "unquestionably the most sexually graphic American narrative feature ever made outside the realm of the porn industry."