Mmmm Did I just watch a Porn flick?!

I am 24 as of yesterday, which is exciting. To celebrate, I decided to hang out with my bud Bren who coincidentally also shares the same birthday as me and we discover this during high school.

After a long weekend - work is naturally hellish, playing catch up is no fun so I decide not to drink and just chill with a film. I really like Michael Winterbottom, initially because of 24 hour party people then I stumbled upon code 46, which also blew my mind. I have always wanted to see this indie side project he worked on called 9songs, so I finally picked it up from the local vid store and was super excited to see it. I didn't know too much about the film apart from the music and I knew it was sexually inspired, that didn't really faze me until I got into the story.

The movie is quite original but I am not sure how I felt about the sequence of the shots. The movie had a lot of sex scenes, it was certainly graphic but I don't think it was pornographic. In fact, i think the lo fi quality is what might shock most unsuspecting viewers from a dark brixton gig scene to macro shots of the 2 characters going for it like rabbits....after a few gigs and bumps - you kind of get used to it, I felt more like a spy watching the film but I think Winterbottom had a stronger intention than just shock and awe.

In a way, the sex is only trivial and more likely a misguidement aspiration for personal fulfilment or just a natural regression of their personal intimacy over the course of the film. Lisa the adventurous lover eventually gets bored and has to leave the heartbroken academic music lover. In a bigger sense, 9songs tries to criticise the contemporary values our culture holds dearly to regarding sex and hedonism, is much similar to what the consumerism claims to deliver but consitutionally fails to deliver in the end - despite its excess in our culture for so called personal fulfillment.

The story is like a poetic love story, like most others you might have already seen but 9songs offers you an intimate view of what love is like - up close and personal, with shots of lovely music and moments of ecstacy that burns bright like an old polaroid you had just popped out from a fresh shot.

It really is a beautiful story and if you are after an alternative love story, 9songs is for you. It certainly make my birthday night a little more memorable than I had anticipated.