Heima

By Mal -

8 out of 10

Am I allowed to review documentaries on here? What the hell, let's go for it. Heima is a film of various performances from Sigur Ros's 2006 tour of Iceland, interspersed with interviews of band members and fans alike. If you've never heard them before, you can expect something akin to whale song played by a rock band. In fact, there's a fair chance you'll already be familiar with one of their tracks, Hoppipolla, as it was used heavily in the trailers for Planet Earth.

But I digress. Much like their music, the film and the band members themselves turn out to be just as gentle and reflective as you'd expect. In fact, there are plenty of shots of them simply staring into space, mid-song. Most of the music, recorded at various unusual venues around the island, is fairly mild stuff too, but both the opening track and the final gig rise to amazing climaxes. At the end of the first one, in particular, I felt like getting up from my cinema seat, clapping and screaming approval. It was fantastic.

I'm still not sure 8 is the right score. Maybe it's a 9 and I just think the music's an 8. Maybe even the film itself warrants a 10. Who knows? I just know I enjoyed it a lot, but felt like it was getting repetitious two-thirds of the way through. Still worth seeing, but I'd strongly recommend seeing it at a cinema rather than on DVD. I practically felt like I was at a gig in that first song. :)

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