God Help the Girl (2014) Review

God Help The Girl (2014)
Director: Stuart Murdoch, Amir Kenzo
Screenwriter: Stuart Murdoch
Starring: Emily Browning, Olly Alexander, Hannah Murray

God Help the Girl (2014) is the highly-anticipated independent British musical from Stuart Murdoch of Belle & Sebastian fame. Starring A Series of Unfortunate Events and Sucker Punch star Emily Browning, who performs with typical depth and melancholia, the story follows her character Eve as she battles with anorexia using the creative output of music.

From a technical standpoint, the film feels very low budget with a series of errors regarding the quality of picture; “gain” and “white balance” being the most obvious issues. Furthermore, the singing is clearly recorded and often not quite as exceptional as you’d expect from a cast that has been put together by such a talented musician. However, these issues are mere distractions from what is an incredibly lovely story that is acted really well, with some damn good songs thrown in.

God Help the Girl really succeeds in exploring the personality and heart of the artistic youth in the UK, and it is for this reason that many will find it so profoundly entertaining. If you don’t count yourself as a part of this group, or don’t remember ever being such a person, then you probably won’t connect in quite the same way. This is a very good movie that developed characters and relationships as well as most other independents do, but with a more accurate representation of the British youth of the day.

In short, God Help the Girl has such a huge heart that the technical faults can be overlooked.

If you like Belle & Sebastian, watch God Help the Girl. If you consider yourself a fan of the arts, watch God Help the Girl. If you want an enjoyable 90 minutes of lovely musical fun, then watch God Help the Girl. Watch it, share it, and share your knowledge of it. This is an independent that really deserves to make its money back so more of the same type of movies can be made in the future.

Score: 15/24

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