By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Stuart Murdoch
Starring: Emily Browning | Hannah Murray | Olly Alexander | Pierre Boulanger
Country: united_kingdom
Year: 2014
Running time: 111
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2141751/combined
Jason says: “GOD HELP THE GIRL is hardly the first time someone has taken a set of songs with an existing strong narrative and made a movie out of them, and as such not the first to demonstrate that slavish reproduction isn’t always the best way to go. There are far worse ways to make a film than throwing a good cast at good material, though, and Stuart Murdoch of Belle and Sebastian actually makes a pretty nice movie around the times when the
songs are dictating the story rather than the other way around.
“Like most good musicals, it opens with a girl sneaking out of a mental institution to see a band, only getting caught when she tries to sneak back in. A while later, when Eve (Emily Browning) has gotten enough of a handle on her anorexia to be given a little more freedom, she walks out again. She connects with James (Olly Alexander), the guitarist who helped her out that other night, filling the spare room in his crowded apartment and tagging along when he gives well-to-do teen Cassie (Hannah Murray) piano lessons. Soon Eve is writing songs for the three to play and completely missing just how smitten James is with her.
“It also starts with a song, and the film isn’t much more than a minute old before Eve is acting out the exact words she’s singing, and that’s frequently kind of cute during the opening number – the initial impression is that she’s a teenager sneaking out of boarding school and going on an exciting adventure, so there’s something very fitting about everything being exactly at face value. Soon, though, it becomes clear that all the songs are going to be represented just that literally, to the point where one number had me honestly wondering whether one of the characters existed entirely because there was a song with her name in the title. Sure, Murdoch originally wrote that song to tell this particular story, but showing exactly what the lyrics are describing feels a bit redundant, and there’s a bit of strain getting them connected in a way that makes a great movie.
“That’s sort of okay, though. A lot of the people in the audience aren’t coming to see the ‘God Help the Girl’ album re-interpreted or diluted by a bunch of subplots or connecting events that weren’t important enough to merit a song in the first place. They want to see it brought to life, and even if it is sometimes done in the obvious way, Murdoch manages that. Rather well, in fact, where it matters: Emily Browning’s voice has a sardonic quality that gives way to a really beautiful fragility that matches what is going on with Eve throughout the film, and the music almost always fits the story and setting: Simple and minimal enough to sound unpracticed but actually be carefully constructed, poppy enough to get bigger and brighter when the characters are on an upswing, and sometimes just damn catchy – ‘I’ll Have to Dance with Cassie’ got stuck in my head for a good long time.
“I’m not sure just how much the cast did their own singing – some of the names in the music credits were familiar from the acting credits, some weren’t – but they acquit themselves well, whether singing, speaking, or just giving a look. Emily Browning gives what certainly feels like a good take on the sort of depression that leads to something like an eating disorder, muted but not so much so that you can’t see her talent and wit underneath it. There are a couple of times that her performance has to cover what seem like gaps in the narrative, and she manages it. She also make a great pair with Olly Alexander; they’re never really cutesy together, and he not only does the thing where James hangs on Eve’s every word, tries to impress her with how clever he is, and backs down when that seems the wrong call beautifully, and there’s never much doubt of his devotion or maturity when things get more serious, either. He also, for what it’s worth, has one of the best deliveries of the one f-word that a movie looking for a PG-13 rating in the US gets. Hannah Murray has kind of a tough job making Cassie feel essential in the face of how much the movie is built around Eve and James, but she manages it, injecting the right sort of funny energy into every scene that needs it.
“Amusingly, none of them actually sound like they’re from Glasgow, where the film takes place, but even if the characters aren’t actually of the place, it matches them, never seeming too fancy or down-and-out. Murdoch and cinematographer Giles Nuttgens do an especially nice job shooting the musical numbers there, since an independent musical is a tricky thing to get right; so many show signs of not having the rehearsal and shooting time to get those complex scenes right, or can’t hire enough people, or have cast and crew either underestimating just how difficult doing this stuff is. Perfectly polished wouldn’t be right for this movie, but they have to be at the right scale. And while the first-time director may be a little shaky in some areas, he’s at least able to translate music ability to capture a feeling to film.
“I do kind of wish that Murdoch had perhaps worked with a more experienced filmmaker – or, at least, a screenwriter – to tighten some of the storytelling up, maybe not put certain things so far in the background. But I’ll probably watch it again or pick up the soundtrack; that song’s still in my head and the movie around it isn’t bad at all either. 4 cats
“Seen 26 April 2014 in the Brattle Theatre (Independent Film Festival Boston, digital)”
Chris says: “In 2009, Stuart Murdoch, leader singer/songwriter of the long running Scottish indie pop band Belle and Sebastian released a side project meant to be a soundtrack for an imaginary film in his head. GOD HELP THE GIRL ended up a Belle and Sebastian album in all but name, featuring a group of female vocalists, Murdoch taking the lead on two tracks and musical backing from the band. Five years later, the film is no longer imaginary, but a feature-length musical written and directed by Murdoch.
“It begins with heroine Eve (Emily Browning), a young, aspiring singer/songwriter institutionalized for an eating disorder. Breaking out on her own, she meets James (Olly Alexander), a talented but socially hapless guitarist (and music obsessive); together with his friend Cassie (Hannah Murray), the three form a band, with James pining for Eve as she also courts Anton (Pierre Boulanger), a more seasoned musician/lothario. It’s a story as old as rock and roll itself, coming off like a younger, Glaswegian ONCE but with peppier, more ornately orchestrated songs and a specter of mental illness lurking around its edges. Browning and Alexander are an ideal Eve and James and sing Murdoch’s songs as well as any member of Belle and Sebastian could. The music, by the way, is sublime, especially later numbers like ‘Come Monday Night’, ‘I’ll Have To Dance With Cassie’ and ‘A Down and Dusky
Blonde’ which prove far more effective in this fleshed out context than they did on the original album. Murray’s vocals may be a little too breathy for their own good, but she brings a contrasting, tart energy to Cassie that plays well off the others.
“As a long-time fan of Murdoch’s work, I approached his first cinematic effort with both anticipation and caution, hoping for something transcendent but fearing an unwatchable vanity project. The end result is somewhere in-between—a little ramshackle and amateurish but often delightful and always sincere (and visually, just like a Belle and Sebastian album cover come to life). For instance, the entire sequence where Eve, James and Cassie take an afternoon rowboat excursion throughout the city could be seen as flabby and excisable, not adding much to the rest of the film, but by itself it’s simply a charming interlude, full of reflection and grace. Scenes like this go a long way in adding texture and personality, for one never doubts that this is exactly the film Murdoch set out to make.
“If his aesthetic occasionally verges on the wrong side of precious or cute, as an outsider to the medium, he brings to it an uncommon sensibility, filtered through highly specific cultural and personal signifiers that breathe life into the well-worn premise of seeking strength and redemption through pop music. I don’t know if he has another film in him, but given this one’s autobiographical bent (Murdoch started his own band very much like Eve, James and Cassie do here), perhaps he doesn’t need to make another film—for all its faults, it crystallizes the same, inimitable qualities contained within his
music. 4 cats
“(This film screened at the 12th annual Independent Film Festival of Boston; a theatrical release is scheduled for this fall).?