Rent 9 Songs (2004)

The sex may be real but unfortunately that's really the only thing that is... Boring, dull & turgid - 9 Songs review by TB

I like films that push boundaries, irrelevant of the content. It doesn't matter if it's about drugs, violence, sex or any other difficult element of existence; a piece of work that confronts this unapologetically & honestly can be the most powerful thing you can watch, to really move & impact you. And sex/relationships on screen is one that for me holds in many ways the most powerful impact, for the simple reason that we live in such an overtly/oversexed world, but also one where there is precious little honesty about how intimacy really is & how it affects people. Then added to that is the absolute hysterical reactions of certain parts of this same media who condemn these films as immoral or pornography

At their best, films like Young Adam and Intimacy are absolutely devastating in their portrayal of sex & relationships on both the main character & the people around them. Young Adam shows a totally immoral & soulless man who literally sleeps with multiple women, irrelevant of the impact on anyone else, to simply try & feel something. Intimacy shows a recently divorced man who has regular sex with a mysterious woman, realising just how empty, squalid & pathetic his own life is.

At their worst, you get films like 9 Songs...

Effectively, the film charts a relationship from the first meet-up at a music gig between Matt & Lisa, from the perspective of Matt looking back on his time with her in the UK, whilst in the Antarctic in his job as a climatologist. We see their relationship go from one of passion & intensity to the standard monotony of being together then the inevitable break-up when Lisa returns to her home in the USA. In between seeing them together, we also see the titular 9 songs performed live by a variety of musicians.

Sadly, despite the efforts & bravery of the 2 actors, this is not a good film. Mentioning the actors, unfortunately neither of them are very good, of course appreciating that with a film which absolutely unapologetically has been made to show pretty much every sexual act performed for real, meant that you were never going to get well-known or incredible actors for the parts. O'Brien in particular has probably been cast partly because he agreed to the demands of the film & mainly because he has an enormous member. And whilst Stilley, from the interviews she gave, took part in the film for noble reasons, she just is in the scenes, either saying her lines unconvincingly or being rogered convincingly. But there is little to no chemistry between the pair of them.

The other big point for me was how this film was made. Shooting it in DV might in some scenes give it an intimacy & closeness, but most of the time, it just looked bloody terrible. In particular, the colour scheme was at points so garish, it was horrible to look at. The various scenes that were set up were relatively contrived & apart from the sex, there wasn't really any other things of note in terms of how the relationship progressed. Even the sex itself is not well-shot (ironically...) When it does finally end, I just felt nonchalant.

I do absolutely give respect to everyone involved, but what they have created does one thing & one thing only: show real sex on screen/push that particular boundary. And without a decent story to hold it together, all it ever was for me was a series of vignettes which happened to show 2 average looking people going at it. And as the aforementioned films at the start of this review prove, there is such potential & power to be had from these types of stories.