9 Songs flits back and forth between concert footage of contemporary rock bands and explicit scenes of actors Kieran O’Brien and Margo Stilley – as a fictional couple named Matt and Lisa – having actual sex. It doesn’t take long for both elements to become incredibly boring. You might think some sort of arty, intellectual exercise is at work here – you know, an exploration of the ironically numbing power of porn – yet British director Michael Winterbottom imbues the proceedings with such listlessness that he doesn’t seem to be interested in much at all (including anything beyond the crummiest digital cinematography). Even so, an oddly puritanical message seeps through. Matt and Lisa rarely speak, yet the movie slowly adopts Matt’s point of view, especially once he broaches the topic of love and is promptly ignored. Before long, the movie begins to paint the more physically aggressive Lisa less like an uninhibited woman and more like an old-fashioned slut. It takes awhile, but 9 Songs eventually does become perverted; it’s a sex tape that wants to hand out scarlet letters.
