A few weeks ago, I watched God Help the Girl, the 2014 musical by Belle and Sebastian bandleader Stuart Murdoch. The film doesn’t have particularly great reviews, but it’s something I’d been meaning to watch for a while. I’d listened to the album it’s based on years before the movie came out, and I find it hard to turn down the offer of a super-twee musical with Belle and Sebastian’s aesthetic.
Criticism of the film’s shortcomings aren’t wrong, and I’m not going to say it’s the compelling and colorful fairytale I’d hoped it would be. Instead, it’s more like a series of music videos strung together by a simple love story; there’s a real strength in how light and carefree the film’s storytelling is. That limits it in some ways, but it also...
