Oh yeah, and there's also the matter of sex. Real sex. Lots of it, gay and straight and in-between. For viewers with nonexistent love lives, this plays like a massive infomercial for New York City.
In form, Shortbus--named after a series of monthly parties Mitchell used to throw--resembles your standard large-cast indie in which several different couples with problems have intersecting lives that come together at the end. And throwing in actual hard-core intercourse and doing so matter-of-factly, puts such allegedly "honest," nudity-free sex comedies as The OH in Ohio to shame.
Mitchell and his cast seem to have struggled to find an ending, and you can feel that struggle onscreen until they finally figure it out, but you know, real-life romance is a bit like that, too.