7 Songs

Running time: N/A

"I heard the news today, oh-boy..." Like recent films Almost Famous and Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Noah Stern's 7 Songs is an ode to rock music. Micah (Chris Eigeman-Metropolitan, Barcelona), a gifted songwriter, is at the most pivotal day of his life struggling to finish his record while writer's block, an immoral record label, and crumbling relationships impede the process. Most of all, however, Micah struggles to find an excitement for life and music that he has lost. Joined by manager/girlfriend/ex-Victoria's Secret model, Josie, and bodyguard/chauffeur/ex-car thief, Kato, Micah hits the road, vowing to complete every menial task in Josie's Palm Pilot. Unfortunately, he did not think that visiting his daughter would culminate in having to quickly invent the song, "Spell I'm Under" for his daughter's class or that, when accepting an honorary degree from his alma mater, he would be ambushed with a special orchestral rendition of one of his greatest hits. Applying digital picture-in-picture filmmaking with both theme and motive, 7 Songs emerges as an "organic" musical in the Robert Altman tradition-with original rock numbers unfolding in real-life, natural context. Featuring original music written and performed by Chris Holmes (formerly of Smashing Pumpkins) and a script that knows its rock history, 7 Songs is a film no music fan will want to miss. - Al Owens