I’m not sure where to begin with reviewing 9 Songs. It’s not that I’m offended by the most graphic sex footage I’ve yet seen on screen, it’s that I’m not quite sure I got the point.
All of this sex is dressed up as meaningful and instructional on the development and eventual failure of their relationship, which it sadly isn’t, and we are also subjected to flyovers of Antarctica of all places, supposedly with some significance as simile. Much of this falls flat, unfortunately, leaving this film as barren of substance as the plateaus of the Ross Ice Shelf.
The leads struggle along, with little dialogue and almost no acting required – they are no more than meat, manipulated this way and that by their director. The cinematography is of the hand-held style I despise, with poorly lit shots cluttered with shadows. The bizarre use of lens filters also makes much of what is shown difficult to actually see – maybe explaining the reduction in the OFLC’s rating? The score is plain annoying, and the use of live footage of many of Britain’s major rock bands fails to lift this film – the concert scenes, which I assume were supposed to educate us further, only serve to break up the sex.
This is a very disappointing film, so obsessed with showing every variation of sexual position and act, that it fails to allow any variation in character. Its heroes are one-dimensional sex objects, whose eventual separation came as a relief.