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Smut and nothing but
"9 Songs" is an arthouse movie full of hot, healthy and positive sex — and nothing else worth mentioning.
By JOSHUA TANZER
Offoffoff.com
I learned about sex at the movies. My mom took me to see "Coming Home," which she — having obviously agonized over whether the movie was too mature for my 14-year-old self — warned me had sex in it. "But it's good sex," she quickly added. So Jane Fonda was my first.
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| 9 SONGS |
Written and directed by: Michael Winterbottom.
Cast: Kieran O'Brien, Margo Stilley.
Cinematography: Marcel Zyskind.
Edited by: Mat Whitecross, Michael Winterbottom.
Related links:
Official site
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| SCHEDULE |
Neptune Theater
1303 NE 45th St., Seattle
Monday, June 6, 2005, 9:30 p.m.
Wednesday, June 8, 2005, 5:30 p.m.
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| RELATED ARTICLES |
Seattle Film Festival 2005
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In fact, it did turn out to be good sex. It was genuine, passionate and kinda hot — and, crucially, it was part of the story. That, of course, is the difference between art and porn: porn has no context.
"9 Songs" also has no context. The basic story is: 1. Matt and Lisa go see bands. 2. They go home and have sex. 3. Matt also has a job studying ice core samples in Antarctica. There, now you know the whole movie.
Of these elements, No. 1 just consists of concert footage, and No. 3 just consists of aerial shots of permafrost with a voiceover. (If director Michael Winterbottom just expensed a trip to Antarctica, more power to him.) They are completely detachable from element No. 2, which is the real point of the movie.
So the only thing to discuss is the sex. It's good sex. It's very graphic, but very unlike other porn sex in two respects: The people involved seem to be having a good time, and it's nicely lit. The camera is interested in both the man and the woman equally, and interested in their happiness. Matt and Lisa — played courageously by British actor Kieran O'Brien and American newcomer Margo Stilley — are playful, exciteable, and sometimes seem entirely absorbed in the moment. Is it genuine, passionate and kinda hot? Definitely. But that begins to feel irrelevant when you're sitting in a movie theater waiting for something else interesting to happen around it. It's good movie sex without the good movie.
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JUNE 7, 2005
OFFOFFOFF.COM • THE GUIDE TO ALTERNATIVE NEW YORK
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