Monday, January 23, 2017

Movie review: 9 Songs

At a rock concert in London, student Lisa meets glaciologist Matt and they quickly develop a steamy relationship while making their own kind of music. Attending a variety of concerts, their intense intimacy comes to an end when Lisa returns home.

Kieran O'Brien (Matt), Margo Stilley (Lisa), and some bands.

Every once in a while an independent film comes along that is artistic, intelligent, thought provoking, and intense. This is not that film. Instead, 9 Songs is a thin excuse for pornography set to underground rock concert clips. Quite literally the film is a concert clip, followed by pornography, rinse and repeat. Unfortunately, neither the concert clips nor the intimacy are well done or entertaining.

Acting was absent. Stilley came across as somewhat demanding and physically selfish to the point of dominating. She also felt like a physical mis-match, trying to be sensual but looking more like a teenage boy than a woman. O'Brien was mildly better but in the end seemed to engage purely for the physical activity, which he enjoyed in a single, uninteresting mode. Adding in the apparent submissive nature of his character further confused the film.

Camera work, sets, and backgrounds were awful with fuzzy, out of focus shots and ridiculously poor lighting. Concert scenes appear to have been filmed with low resolution cell phones by people who don't know how to use them. Dialogue was inconsequential given the storyline and theme.

Overall 9 Songs is simply disappointing from every angle. Concert clip quality is so poor as to almost be unwatchable. Intimate scenes lack energy, imagination, and any of the provocation found in genre specific films. Unless you have a ridiculously compelling reason to watch this one, move along. It should not be difficult to find something, anything, that is more entertaining.

Disclaimer: This one was so uninteresting, and the technical work so poorly done, we couldn't even finish the film.

With explicit sexuality save this one for adults.

Released: 2004
Reviewed: 1.21.17
Star rating: 1 out of 5
Genre: Steamy Romance, Drama, Music, Romance

copyright ©2017 Dave Riedel

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