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No drugs? Sex and rock and roll. What's missing from that list is the element that might help you get through Michael Winterbottom's 9 Songs, 69 minutes of hard rock and explicit but mostly softcore sex. The versatile director, who has spanned a broader range of genres than anyone you can name—with varying degrees of success—strikes out twice with this effort, a lousy concert film and worse porno. Kept to about two minutes each are live musical performances by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (two songs), the Von Bondies, Elbow, Primal Scream, the Dandy Warhols, Super Furry Animals, Franz Ferdinand and Michael Nyman. These serve as foreplay for Matt (Kieran O'Brien) and Lisa (Margo Stilley), who meet at the first concert and make out through most of the rest. In between they mostly go at it and we see bits of their bouts of lovemaking. When they talk we wish they'd shut up and fuck. He's rather ordinary looking but not bad for a Brit. He says she's beautiful but I say she's homely, not good for an American, and rather flat-chested. "I look like a boy," she says. Oh, there are some drugs. They snort cocaine twice and there's a brief conversation about Lisa taking pills, prescription or otherwise, that suggests a plot tangent but goes nowhere. The film might have been better if one band had played all nine songs and we'd seen nine different couples having sex. Most of the sex is simulated or suggested, including a bit where a second woman joins them in a club, but after a lot of teasing Winterbottom finally shows oral and anal penetration. It's still not very arousing, as porn goes, so what's the point? This is 21st-century porno chic, for people too sophisticated to get excited. The story is told in retrospect by Matt as he flies over the Antarctic doing research on ice samples. The only connection I can see between this and the rest of the film is that it left me cold. Steve Warren is a local actor and film reviewer. His reviews can also be seen weekly in the Sunday Paper. |
9 Songs
Directed by: Michael Winterbottom 
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(1 out of 4)