Review of 9 Songs (2004) by Nayeli M — 07 Aug 2005

[font=Century Gothic]"9 Songs" is about Matt(Kieran O'Brien), an English geologist and Lisa(Margo Stilley), a 21 year-old American who met at a concert in London. Matt is recalling their past relationship while being stationed in Antarctica. What he does seem to remember most is the music and the sex they shared.(I do wonder what she recalls most but to be perfectly fair if I was stuck in a cold lonely place for a long while, I'd try and think about sex. You know, just to get my mind off things...) The sex here being shown as unsimulated and as real as possible which does tend to give a natural feel to the proceedings.[/font].

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[font=Century Gothic]In "9 Songs", Michael Winterbottom gives us another lesson in guerrilla filmmaking. The concert footage feels like we are actually in the concert hall seeing the performance. It is cool that the sex is not always vanilla but I do have trouble with a couple of Matt's reactions in some places. I think I would have liked the movie more if it had been longer, so we could have gotten to know the characters better. And the ending is rather abrupt but maybe that's for the best. In the end, I found "9 Songs" unexpectedly poignant and deeply erotic. [/font].