FILMBRATS - REVIEWS

Matt and Lisa meet at a concert and go home together. They grow increasingly fond of each other and start off a relationship filled with passionate, occasionally tawdry sex. Yet they don’t deny their roots, and they still enjoy the wonderful atmosphere and music that their local hot spot provides. But is there more to life than music and screwing?

My answer to that question is: there should be. Unfortunately, we’re not given anything more than that. There’s no real insight into the minds of the characters. There’s no chance for us as an audience to build a connection with either of them. All we see is sex, song, sex, song, etc. I bet you can guess how many times that cycle is repeated. That’s not to say there isn’t dialogue. There is, but it’s bad and not enough to flesh out these people past, well…their flesh. You see, Matt is in love with the Antarctic for whatever reason. I think his job involves going there. I don’t know. They don’t explain ANYHING. But, anyways, they throw in some shots of ice floes and glaciers and such and we get to hear him chime in with his in depth thoughts on ice and how it relates to humanity and whatever. It’s really pathetically simplistic symbolism that bored me to tears. I’ll top it all off by saying that any potential timeframe is completely lost. The progression of their relationship is mostly implied and ends up being confusing. Any part of interest simply is left out.

It really seemed to me that the nine songs technique was really just an excuse for writer/director Michael Winterbottom (“24 Hour Party People” and the “Wonderland” that isn’t about John Holmes) to try to make artistic pornography. The music comes from established bands that actually play this large concert hall. You may have heard of some of them. But the point is that the songs have absolutely nothing to do with what little story we’re given, nor do they enhance the emotional impact of any scene surrounding them. Switching between the hardcore sex and the terribly shot concert footage is a strange effect and feels like some High Schooler just made some horrible mix tape he thought would be rad.

This movie is pornography. I can’t see any real artistic justification for including these hardcore sex scenes in between the live music videos. We’re given no clue as to what in the relationship would suggest that our seeing private parts are crucial. I don’t feel like I know them any better because of it. I don’t have a greater understanding of them. I just have seen everything there is to see.

The movie fails as an art film by making no attempt at sense, statement, or real purpose. The movie fails at pornography by not showing enough penetration, ejaculation, or range of positions (if these people were really a couple for so long, you’d think we’d see more variety and some more nasty/kinky stuff than just being tied up. Explore, people!). The only real upside to this extremely drab, boring, horribly shot film is the potential for the future. Although, not used effectively here, it’s easy to see that forthcoming films could use hardcore action to bring the date movie to the next level. The romantic comedy sucks most of the time already anyway. Make a romantic drama, throw in a little insertion and such, and give the adults a good date movie that they can use to set the mood for the evening. Just don’t expect that so much this time.

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