Steve McQueen is a director who likes to exercise control. On the red carpet, for instance, he suffers no fools.

Behind the camera, he firmly directs our gaze and tells us where to look: long, carefully composed shots. Two heads reclined on a couch. Michael Fassbender in his bed, the rumpled sheets an angry sea of satin.

For his first film, McQueen (who comes from a visual art background) chose Hunger -- a movie about a powerful act of self-control: an IRA prisoner who refuses food.

But his latest, Shame, is about a man's absolute lack of control. Fassbender plays Brandon, by all appearances a well off, manicured Manhattanite. He has the charcoal grey coat and the complementary blue scarf. Despite his long and lean looks, high brow and slate-coloured eyes, however, Brandon radiates a feral charisma.

Women fall into his orbit helplessly. A sex addict, his hunger is insatiable. When he's not trolling for hook-ups on the way to work, at work and in clubland, he's lustfully searching online. Call girls, webcam girls, seeking release in the morning shower -- every day is a marathon of gratification.

The sudden appearance of Brandon's sister (Carey Mulligan) becomes a major interruption in Brandon's carnal buffet. Sissy is the sister Brandon doesn't want. She's bubbly, silly and emotional -- everything he isn't.

Shame is certainly Fassbender's film. Still, as he did in Hunger, McQueen includes a showstopper of a scene, in this case focusing on Mulligan as she delivers an unforgettable rendition of New York, New York. The music is sparse, almost plaintive, and highlights one of the few moments that pierce Brandon's shell.

But when Sissy hits it off with Brandon's boss, the spectre of real intimacy between the two literally sends him running. The closest thing to a conventional romantic relationship in Brandon's life are his few dates with Marianne (Nicole Beharie). A woman from the office, she isn't immune to his charms, but she's looking for something more substantial.

Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan play siblings in the drama Shame. (Alliance Films)

Brandon says he doesn't see the point of relationships. He's proud of his Cro-Magnon brow and behaviour. Yet beneath his crude man act is an individual in torment. Both he and Sissy are damaged souls.

In interviews, Fassbender and Mulligan admit to having worked out a shared backstory, but they aren't sharing it. In the film, this is the closest we get:

SISSY: "We're not bad people. We just come from a bad place."

Again, this is McQueen's controlling hand at work. It's not about what happened in Sissy and Brandon's past, our focus must be on them at the present. So, we watch Brandon's downward spiral and the drowning of his sorrows in flesh until, even at the high of climax, his face is a rictus of agony.

Shame is a difficult, artful movie, filled with stunning sequences and performances. It is an actor's movie and Fassbender bares much more than his body (Although, yes, the movie begins with the infamous free willy moment -- another stunt by McQueen as Shame chips away at our defenses).

While it's easy to marvel at the British filmmaker's technique and the movie's unflinching openness, Shame suffers from a lack of insight. Without reasons, nor answers for Brandon's behaviour, we become simple voyeurs: watching what Brandon does, but never quite knowing why. Those who prefer a little more narrative in their cinematic choices will find it a frustrating experience. Others will appreciate the high art treatment of this dirty tale.

RATING: 3.5 out of 5