9 Songs
Tartan | Release Date: July 22, 2005 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
43
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
13
Negative:
9
Watch Now
Buy on

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
70
VarietyDerek Elley
A touching, often poetic, sometimes achingly real snapshot of a brief encounter related almost entirely through the bedroom. Read full review
70
The New York TimesStephen Holden
9 Songs, for all its failed ambitions and its tinge of sexism, is lovely to watch. Read full review
70
SalonStephanie Zacharek
While 9 Songs is sexually explicit in the basic sense, its DIRECTNESS is what's most fascinating, and ultimately most moving, about it. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneAllison Benedikt
Ingenious with his use of music and hypnotic pacing, Winterbottom keeps us in his world as usual. But this time that world feels ever more gratuitous, meandering and puzzling, with sex that's less and less authentic even though it's real. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
It's the emotional equivalent of a big shrug. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
Michael Winterbottom nakedly goes where no "respectable" director has gone before - to sex and beyond! His provocative 9 Songs is the first movie by a director of Winterbottom's standing to depict real, uncensored sex between its lead actors. Read full review
63
New York PostKyle Smith
The film accurately reminds you, if you need reminding, what it's like to have your mind hijacked by somebody's body. Read full review
60
Dallas ObserverLuke Y. Thompson
This movie is, essentially, porn, and whether it's a turn-on is likely to be subjective to each viewer. Those who find traditional porn too artificial should be pleased. Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Members of what used to be referred to euphemistically as the "raincoat crowd," will probably enjoy Winterbottom's experiment more than most. Read full review
50
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
Michael Winterbottom's erotic drama isn't so much a story of a love affair as an anatomy of a sexual relationship. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy Burr
It's a smart, provocative idea for a movie. I wish 9 Songs was that movie. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
As an idea, the film is fascinating, but as an experience it grows tedious; the concerts lack closeups, the sex lacks context, and Antarctica could use a few penguins. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
For a movie that consists almost entirely of real sex and real rock 'n' roll, 9 Songs feels remarkably conventional. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarrit Ingman
It works best as a spank-it movie you don’t have to feel guilty about and that you can dance to. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
With no previous acting experience, she's (Stilley) a natural between the sheets but a rank amateur between the vowels. Read full review
50
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
Winterbottom never provides the empathic connective tissue we expect. Love it or not, 9 Songs amounts to a common human rite fastidiously caught in amber, giving off no heat or joy but crystallized for the future. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Nobody will go to see Michael Winterbottom's sexually explicit, novelty-act drama - a naughty peep show for sobersides, disguised as a nature documentary - to hear the songs; everyone will go to see the shagging, which occupies the majority of the screen time. Read full review
50
TimeRichard Corliss
Neither lurid nor especially compelling. This is the triumph, and the limitation, of 9 Songs: it makes explicit movie sex ordinary--as ordinary as the sexual activities of most of the folks watching it. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
It's always hard to predict what Winterbottom will try next, but this experiment isn't worth repeating, the lively concert scenes notwithstanding. Be forewarned that the sexual scenes aren't simulated. Read full review
40
Film ThreatBob Westal
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. Read full review
33
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
A stultifying bore. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Yet for all its ballyhooed candor about sexual matters, it's a surprisingly baffling and opaque film, too artistic to be standard pornography and too zealously focused on being graphic to the exclusion of all else to succeed as drama. Read full review
30
SlateDavid Edelstein
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. Read full review
30
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Never did sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll seem more shopworn and routine. Read full review
30
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
9 Songs inadvertently proves just how limited experimentation for its own sake can be. Read full review
30
The Hollywood ReporterMichael Rechtshaffen
An examination of a sexual relationship that's about as viscerally explicit as hardcore can get...But as satisfying viewing experiences go, the film comes up mighty short in terms of story, interesting characters and technical prowess. Read full review
30
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Between the performances in the bedroom and on stage, 9 Songs gives off plenty of heat, but the whole project seems half-thought-out and hastily arranged, hampered by butt-ugly DV photography that turn skin tones grimy and make the Brixton scenes look as high-grain as a bowl of Mueslix. Read full review
30
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
There is a fine film to be made about the retreat from worldly obligation into erotic rite, and Brando and Bertolucci made it in 1972. But what “Last Tango in Paris” proved was that our skin-grazing view of a body makes us more, not less, enthusiastic to grasp the shape of the soul that it enshrines. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleNeva Chonin
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. Read full review
More From This Movie

43 Critic Reviews

4.9 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL