Derek Malcolm of
The Guardian praised the film: "
Nine Songs looks like a
porn movie, but it feels like a love story. The sex is used as a metaphor for the rest of the couple's relationship. And it is shot with Winterbottom's customary sensitivity."
Radio Times gave a lackluster review, awarding it two stars out of five, claiming: "From the hot, blurry chaos of the gigs to the sparsely furnished flat where the couple unite, this is very much an exercise in style over content. As such, some will find it a rewarding art house experiment with much to recommend it, others watching simply for the explicit and unsimulated lovemaking may well find it boring and pretentious." Writing for
East Bay Express, Luke Y. Thompson claimed: "Michael Winterbottom delivers the sex, and not much else." He continued: "Though there isn't much narrative in effect, Winterbottom does quite literally build to a climax...O'Brien is
well endowed, while Stilley is all natural...If the movie were any longer, the onscreen events might become a lot more tedious, but there are just enough different things each time to avoid dull repetition. You may have seen a
handjob onscreen, for instance, but have you ever seen a
foot job? It's interesting, to say the least."
Controversy According to
The Guardian,
9 Songs is the most
sexually explicit mainstream film to date, largely because it includes several scenes of
real sex between the two lead actors. The film is unusual in that its lead actors,
Margo Stilley and
Kieran O'Brien, actually had sex on set, much of which is shown clearly in the film, including genital fondling,
masturbation with and without a
vibrator,
penetrative vaginal sex,
cunnilingus and
fellatio. During a scene in which Stilley gives O'Brien a
handjob after performing fellatio on him, O'Brien became the only actor who has been shown
ejaculating in a mainstream, UK-produced feature. To avoid a possible pregnancy, O'Brien wore a
condom on his erect penis during the vaginal sex but not while receiving oral sex. Margo Stilley initially asked Winterbottom to refer to her simply by her character's name in interviews about the film. The release sparked a debate over whether the scenes of explicit sex artistically contributed to the film's meaning or crossed the border into pornography. In the United Kingdom, the film received an
18 certificate from the
British Board of Film Classification and became the most explicit mainstream film to be so rated in the country. MP
Ann Widdecombe complained about the film in the UK House of Commons and called on the Home Secretary to reverse the decision to release it uncut. In Australia, the
Office of Film and Literature Classification gave the film an
X rating, which would have prevented the film from being shown theatrically and restricted sale of the film to the Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory. The OFLC Review Board later passed the film with an R rating, although the South Australian Classification Council raised the rating back to X in
South Australia. In
New Zealand, while the
Society for the Promotion of Community Standards lobbied for the film to be kept out of cinemas, it was passed uncut at R18 by the
Office of Film and Literature Classification. The film was broadcast on New Zealand pay TV
Rialto Channel in July 2007. In June 2008, the film was broadcast on Dutch national television by the public broadcasting station VPRO. ==See also==