If you are at all familiar with the musical works of Belle
and Sebastian, then you likely realize that frontman Stuart Murdoch is a
hipster’s hipster. And now, based on his
solo album of the same name, he has written and directed God Help The Girl, a deliberate homage to the experimental films of
the 1960s and the pop musicals of the era.
The result is equal parts amateur and inspired, uneven and energetic,
inherently flawed yet enjoyable all the same.
This is the story of Eve, the eponymous girl who loves music
so much that she lets her life fall into disrepair and ruin, letting depression
overtake her as she neglects her body and self-care. Against the advice of her therapist, she
leaves her care facility to shack up with James, a wannabe musician who gives
music lessons on the side. Along with
Cassie, one of his students, the trio decide to form a band, with Eve as the
frontwoman and lead songwriter.
Meanwhile, though, Eve’s mental health issues are ever lurking in the
background.
Now, what’s really intriguing about this film is that it is
very unapologetically about the music first, and the plot second. Characters will burst into song and play
instruments for seemingly no reason at all other than to provide a few minutes
of music video, simply shot with minimal effects of the variety that one would
have expected in Hard Day’s Night,
this film’s obvious chief inspiration.
Eve often looks directly into the camera as her haunting melodies pour
from her lips, intentionally breaking the illusion of characters in a story in
order to communicate directly to the viewer.
This is very reminiscent of French New Wave techniques that pushed the
boundaries of cinema in the 1960s, and it’s kinda neat to see them used here.
However, the main problem is that Murdoch’s fascination with
technique and music leaves his story and characters in a bit of a creative
rut. To draw another Beatles-inspired
parallel, God Help The Girl has a lot
of the same problems as Across The Universe, letting the music dictate how the mood and plot should go with little
regard for story arc or tonal consistency.
It’s often easy to be confused about what is happening in a particular
scene, why it is happening, or how it fits into the greater narrative, often
because there is no point other than to see the song come to life. It’s a film that pretends to be deeper than
it actually is, with visual gags juxtaposed with deadly serious moments, and no natural build-up in between.
Still, I feel that looking for anything more than an
audio-visual experience is asking a bit much from God Help The Girl. This is,
after all, a film adaptation of a musical album, so of course the
above-mentioned flaws were going to be pervasive if the integrity of the music
was going to be kept intact. For what it
is, I enjoyed this film, and I’ll likely pick up the album that was its source
material. Give this film a shot and see
if you feel the same.
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