Music as Medicine in God Help The Girl

God Help The Girl provided a fun, quirky glimpse of the origins of a band in the form of a musical. But while the melodies we hear are uplifting and cute, the subject matter is quite dark. Eve is introduced as a victim of severe anorexia with her only escape being music. This is nothing new in cinema. The contrast between the music heard and the situation on screen portrays denial and evokes melancholy. Seen that. The frequent musical break-outs propel the storyline and reveal characters’ emotions. Been done. Stuart Murdoch’s take on this concept is nowhere as powerful (or traumatizing) as that of Lars von Trier in Dancer in the Dark, nor is it politically significant like Bob Fosse’s in Cabaret. So what makes God Help The Girl stand out?

I am personally intrigued by the musical numbers because they are Eve’s only signs of hope. They aren’t used so much as hopeless calls for help like in Cabaret, or as sudden, dreary daydreams like in Dancer in the Dark. Music is actually what steers Eve in the right direction and gets her out of difficult times. It stands for something positive in her life and makes her happy. Rather than being a delusional escape from her problems, digging her further and further into denial of reality, it is essentially the solution. With her twee soundtrack, she captivates the viewers and makes them root for her. Every time the music plays and Eve, James, and Cassie begin to sing and dance, the viewer can actually sit back and enjoy the number instead of having to read into the underlying tragedies that it’s supposed to be pointing to. Hearing the songs, the audience can be reassured that Eve’s making progress and recovering from her depression as she uses music to express herself in good times and bad. In the "Musician, Please Take Heed" performance, when she begins the song with a sad tune, singing about her feelings of abandonment, the track quickly picks up in speed and takes an uplifting turn. She sings, "I pick the soundtrack with immaculate care; Such a lot rests upon it; My life upon a song; You don't know how much I need; Musician, please take heed." Here Eve suggests that music is the only thing that won't abandon her, so she might as well pick a good song. This philosophy of hers is what drives her out of her low points as she hits rock bottom time and time again. In the same song, she sings about her moment of relapse and how she gives into lust and takes a dose of hallucinogens to avoid dealing with her demons. We are shown a choreographed drug-deal and see Eve popping pills and drinking in bed with an unidentified girl. Although escapism and denial is very present in Eve's coping with her troubles, the songs themselves are completely sincere. Rather than being a distraction from what she had done, music acts as an outlet to her.

Eve forms a band and puts her talents to use, really doing something with her life, and that’s what the musical aspect of the film represents. It monitors her progress as she climbs out of the hole that she’s introduced in and gets her life together. Authentic and explicit positivity is nice to witness every once in a while, especially when accompanied by indie aesthetics and fantasies. Obviously, there have been uplifting musicals before, but the use of the musical genre to unravel the story of three hipster outcasts overcoming prevalent issues and making something of themselves is refreshing to me. Or maybe I just need to take a break from watching so many depressing movies.