Cassie: "If you went to the pub now, around the corner and you were like: "I everyone, I'm Scottish." Someone would punch you in the face" Eve: "Absolutely"
I knew absolutely nothing about the film, going in i didn't even know it was a musical. I remember it premiering at Sundance and getting some good buzz but after that, it kind of faded. But it has been now on a limited release and the talk is that it's flawed but worth seeing, and so i did.
God Help the Girl is Directed by Stuart Murdoch and it stars Emily Browning, Olly Alexander, Hannah Murray, Pierre Boulanger and Cora Bissett. "Set in Glasgow, Scotland, the film is about a girl called Eve who is in the hospital dealing with some emotional problems and starts writing songs as a way of getting better. Songwriting becomes her way forward, leading her to the City where she meets James and Cassie, two musicians each at crossroads of their own. What follows is a story of renaissance over the course of a long, dream-like Summer"
"WE ARE SEX BOB-OMB!!! ONE-TWO-THREE-FOUR"...Wait...wrong movie. Sh*t i have just seen this picture and i literally can not remember any of it's musical performances, which tells a lot about the movie itself. Unfortunately this is not something nearly as awesome as Scott Pilgrim VS The World. This is too a coming of age story of sorts, that unfortunately loses itself in a middle of a sugar coated and tonally inconsistent melodrama that i pretty much hated.
As said, i didn't know what the film was about, i was expecting some kind of coming of age story and ultimately i guess you can say that this is what that is, but not one that features musical numbers. Early on i realized that this was going to be a musical but it seemed as though it was going to be a serious one, since the sub- plot of the main character contains heavy and serious subjects as anorexia.
It actually even took me a while to realize that the characters were adults since from the poster and the actors themselves, it seemed as though they were thirteen. The film also took some time in deciding it's tone, well to be fair it actually never decides. That's one the film's biggest problems, the fact that it is inconsistent. One minute we follow the dramatic moments of Eve's like and her health issues and the other moment we see James running in front of a on growing mob, like he is Buster Keaton in Seven Chances or The Beatles in A Hard Day's Night. Tonally the film meanders from being sentimental, to being silly, to being straight up awkward and even dramatic. The problem is that it's not ever good at anyone of those.
I struggled a lot to care for any of it. In it's first act the film settles up with a more serious tone and it focuses more in Eve's health decease and overall depression. Then in the second act, i finally started to enjoy myself, especially with the entry of Cassie's character whose actually pretty funny and as some good lines. In those moments, the three actors were at times able to capture the friendship of their characters, but all of that seems to be a minor part of the film after it's third act. In the third act the film's tone is completely off as it goes from being joyful to being depressing. I was confused and didn't care much for any of what was going on. It's also in the last third of the film that we find a series of musical numbers that were woeful and vexatious. They weren't musical numbers they were almost video clips within an actual film. Their presence felt awkward, most of the songs were superficial and lacking on emotion or dept (or at least i didn't feel any)
The actors are not particularly bad but i can't say i was amused or welcomed their presence. These hipster looking kids never manage to charm me and to say the truth by the end of the picture i could barely stand seeing them.
God Help the Girl is a film that might touch and charm some, but my cold stoned heart was not moved in any way. It's sugar coated to an extend where it's whimsy actually becomes numbing and annoying. It has good intentions and it even might be close to the heart of those involved but that did certainly not translate into the screen. It's never funny enough and it's songs are never catchy or good enough to make this an enjoyable or worth seeing experience. I almost couldn't finish it, one of the worst pictures i have seen all year, now i have to go and to an exam to check if i have diabetes.
Rating:D+
I knew absolutely nothing about the film, going in i didn't even know it was a musical. I remember it premiering at Sundance and getting some good buzz but after that, it kind of faded. But it has been now on a limited release and the talk is that it's flawed but worth seeing, and so i did.
God Help the Girl is Directed by Stuart Murdoch and it stars Emily Browning, Olly Alexander, Hannah Murray, Pierre Boulanger and Cora Bissett. "Set in Glasgow, Scotland, the film is about a girl called Eve who is in the hospital dealing with some emotional problems and starts writing songs as a way of getting better. Songwriting becomes her way forward, leading her to the City where she meets James and Cassie, two musicians each at crossroads of their own. What follows is a story of renaissance over the course of a long, dream-like Summer"
"WE ARE SEX BOB-OMB!!! ONE-TWO-THREE-FOUR"...Wait...wrong movie. Sh*t i have just seen this picture and i literally can not remember any of it's musical performances, which tells a lot about the movie itself. Unfortunately this is not something nearly as awesome as Scott Pilgrim VS The World. This is too a coming of age story of sorts, that unfortunately loses itself in a middle of a sugar coated and tonally inconsistent melodrama that i pretty much hated.
As said, i didn't know what the film was about, i was expecting some kind of coming of age story and ultimately i guess you can say that this is what that is, but not one that features musical numbers. Early on i realized that this was going to be a musical but it seemed as though it was going to be a serious one, since the sub- plot of the main character contains heavy and serious subjects as anorexia.
It actually even took me a while to realize that the characters were adults since from the poster and the actors themselves, it seemed as though they were thirteen. The film also took some time in deciding it's tone, well to be fair it actually never decides. That's one the film's biggest problems, the fact that it is inconsistent. One minute we follow the dramatic moments of Eve's like and her health issues and the other moment we see James running in front of a on growing mob, like he is Buster Keaton in Seven Chances or The Beatles in A Hard Day's Night. Tonally the film meanders from being sentimental, to being silly, to being straight up awkward and even dramatic. The problem is that it's not ever good at anyone of those.
I struggled a lot to care for any of it. In it's first act the film settles up with a more serious tone and it focuses more in Eve's health decease and overall depression. Then in the second act, i finally started to enjoy myself, especially with the entry of Cassie's character whose actually pretty funny and as some good lines. In those moments, the three actors were at times able to capture the friendship of their characters, but all of that seems to be a minor part of the film after it's third act. In the third act the film's tone is completely off as it goes from being joyful to being depressing. I was confused and didn't care much for any of what was going on. It's also in the last third of the film that we find a series of musical numbers that were woeful and vexatious. They weren't musical numbers they were almost video clips within an actual film. Their presence felt awkward, most of the songs were superficial and lacking on emotion or dept (or at least i didn't feel any)
The actors are not particularly bad but i can't say i was amused or welcomed their presence. These hipster looking kids never manage to charm me and to say the truth by the end of the picture i could barely stand seeing them.
God Help the Girl is a film that might touch and charm some, but my cold stoned heart was not moved in any way. It's sugar coated to an extend where it's whimsy actually becomes numbing and annoying. It has good intentions and it even might be close to the heart of those involved but that did certainly not translate into the screen. It's never funny enough and it's songs are never catchy or good enough to make this an enjoyable or worth seeing experience. I almost couldn't finish it, one of the worst pictures i have seen all year, now i have to go and to an exam to check if i have diabetes.
Rating:D+