SummaryMatt, a young glaciologist, soars across the vast, silent, icebound immensities of the South Pole as he recalls his love affair with Lisa. They meet at a mobbed rock concert in a vast music hall -- London's Brixton Academy. They are in bed at night’s end. Together, over a period of several months, they pursue a mutual sexual passion whose inevita... Read More
Directed By:Michael Winterbottom
Written By:Michael Winterbottom
9 Songs
Metascore
Mixed or Average
43
User score
Mixed or Average
4.3
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Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
43
24% Positive
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
45% Mixed
13 Reviews
13 Reviews
31% Negative
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
70
While 9 Songs is sexually explicit in the basic sense, its DIRECTNESS is what's most fascinating, and ultimately most moving, about it.
63
The film accurately reminds you, if you need reminding, what it's like to have your mind hijacked by somebody's body.
User score
Mixed or Average
4.3
18% Positive
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
45% Mixed
17 Ratings
17 Ratings
37% Negative
14 Ratings
14 Ratings
Nov 12, 2012
4
9 Songs is just porn dressed up as an indie-drama. Don't buy what it's selling.
Aug 25, 2026
2
A Hollow Progression of Fleeting Encounters and a Youthful Journey Ending in Emptiness.170225 (1.0)Events that drift by pointlessly and hollowly. A journey of youth that comes to an utterly empty end. Directed by Michael Winterbottom, the 2004 British romantic drama "9 Songs" stars Kieran O'Brien as Matt, an English glaciologist working in Antarctica, and Margo Stilley as Lisa, an American college student spending a year abroad in London. Framed through Matt's solitary recollections while surrounded by the vast, frozen Antarctic expanse, the film traces the progression of their intense, turbulent one-year relationship through two alternating elements: explicit, unsimulated physical intimacy in private quarters and live concert performances by nine distinct rock and post-punk bands, including Franz Ferdinand, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Primal Scream, and The Dandy Warhols. While the visual concept aims to chronicle the natural lifecycle of modern passion, lust, and eventual emotional detachment purely through music and physicality, the narrative lacks depth, dialogue, and substantive character evolution, leaving behind an emotionally stagnant and hollow reflection on intimacy.
50
With no previous acting experience, she's (Stilley) a natural between the sheets but a rank amateur between the vowels.
50
Michael Winterbottom's erotic drama isn't so much a story of a love affair as an anatomy of a sexual relationship.
40
As 9 Songs played out for sixty-nine (count ‘em!) minutes, I started to find myself wishing they would just end the interminable, deliberately underlit, sex scenes and get back to those really hot pics of Antarctica.
30
9 Songs could have been "Last Rock Show in London." Unfortunately, it's stupefyingly dull, even with good music and at the short but resonant length of 69 minutes.
25
This disappointing new film from director Michael Winterbottom ("24 Hour Party People") suffers from a similar malaise: It's poetic and pretty, strives for profundity without attaining it, and finally ends up saying nothing.
Mar 8, 2021
1
I absolutely have no idea why a person should love this porno. it Basically is a porno with some music. Terrible.
Jan 8, 2018
0
I read a lot about this film before i watched it, but i figured, some people don't know anything about art in cinema, so i decided to watch it myself and to prove them wrong. I expected too much. this film is shot beautifully, but that doesn't change the fact that it's just sex scenes and live music. seriously: if a person wants sex and music, they rent porn and a live DVD of some band. I really, really don't mind a lot of sex in a movie, as long as it deepens the knowledge about the relationship between the characters. but we don't know these two people, so we can't relate to them. and the film doesn't really make us want to know more about them, either. All in all, the film is like a nice flower: beautiful to look at for maybe one or two minutes at best, but not for sixty-seven. it doesn't leave you with any kind of feeling, you know? most films leave a question, or make you go "awwww" or leave you either satisfied or unsatisfied, but this one just makes you go "okay, i just watched a lot of sex, some music, and saw a few shots of Antarctica." and that's all it is.
Production Company:
- Revolution Films
Release Date:Jul 22, 2005
Duration:1 h 11 m
Tagline:The Most Sexually Explicit Film In The History Of British Cinema.
Awards
San Sebastián International Film Festival
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
Golden Trailer Awards
• 1 Nomination
