John Cameron Mitchell's "Shortbus" is a pansexual comedy that tries to get at character through graphic sexual behavior. Pornography, of course, is designed to stimulate sexual excitement in viewers, which they may choose to relieve or not, but the sexual acts are disconnected from emotions. In this film, however, Mitchell -- who created his script by work-shopping scenes and characters with his open-minded and brave cast -- wants to, as he puts it, "use the language of sex as a metaphor for other aspects of the characters' lives."

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