God Help the Girl
  • Courtesy SIFF
  • God Help the Girl

Stuart Murdoch from Belle & Sebastian made a delightful movie called God Help the Girl based on the musical project for female voices of the same title. Set in Glasgow and shot on 16mm, it stars Olly Alexander as a pop-music-obsessed abandoned rabbit of a lifeguard, Emily Browning as a singer on the run from a mental health facility, and Hannah Murray (Skins & Game of Thrones) as their posh friend. They dress up in cute clothes, pine for each other, and form a chamber pop band, all of which occasion regular bursts into song for dreamy musical numbers. The preciousness of it all is balanced by little currents of melancholy.

I found it excessively charming when I saw it at SXSW this spring and fully agree with the wise the commandment of the SIFF Guide: "Dear Belle and Sebastian fans: Go see this movie."

It has only one more screening at the Seattle International Film Festival on Tuesday at 7:00 pm at SIFF Cinema Uptown.