9 Songs

8/28/2022

Lisa is an exchange student in London. Her affair with Matt has the urgency of the ephemeral. They are enjoying an extended, unofficial honeymoon; we see them dancing, drinking beer, doing drugs, hanging out, having irrelevant conversations and, above all, going to rock shows (all nine of the titular songs are performed live) and having sex (Matt and Lisa have intercourse the same way they talk; ie, like real human beings as opposed to movie characters). There is generous nudity, and the sex is sometimes tentative and sometimes vigorous, and often uninhibited and experimental – as well as explicit and unsimulated (and, might I add, safe). At the same time, the songs, all except one by indie, garage, and punk rock bands (Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Elbow, Primal Scream, among others), a