After rocker Kurt Cobain's death, ruled a suicide, a film crew arrives in Seattle to make a documentary. Director Nick Broomfield talks to lots of people. Portraits emerge: a shy, slight Kurt, weary of touring, embarrassed by fame, hooked on heroin; an out-going Courtney, dramatic, controlling, moving from groupie to star.
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Don't listen to the negative reviews
At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,
"Who killed Kurt...?" Every time someone dies, an intriguing conspiracy theory arises from the ashes. I only saw this movie recently, and not knowing what to expect, let me say if you are looking for definitive answers about the death of Cobain, well you won't find them here. Kurt's death was very tragic, but even his Aunt claims the whole conspiracy theory is a load of bunk and it is clear to me that his addiction and depression killed him. Neither Dave Grohl nor Krist Novoselic are featured throughout the movie but I was impressed how director Nick Broomfield handled it. He exposes the hypocrisy of Hollywood and manages to dig some pure oddballs out of the woodwork. Fans of Courtney Love are likely to despise this movie, she get ripped into and the disdain for her is evident throughout. My final view is that it's interesting but sometimes flawed and proves again that there is no definitive movie on Cobain.
Honestly, this is a review of the first 30 minutes. Because that's how long I lasted before turning it off.What promises to be an interesting documentary, quickly turned into a repetition of "Courtney is evil" statements. Mentioning one time that there's no Nirvana music because she owns the rights and wouldn't approve is OK. Doing it time and time again, combined with seemingly only looking for people who have bad things to say about her becomes boring rapidly.I'm not a fan of Courtney Love at all, but seeing this documentary's unashamed skewed look at the whole thing is unbearable.
Much has been said about the powder keg relationship of Kurt Cobain,the singer/songwriter/guitarist of the Seattle based band, Nirvana,and his off again,on again relationship with wife,Courtney Love (from the band,Hole). It's obvious they were toxic for one another (both were hardcore Heroin users). Nick Broomfield tried to craft a documentary film about what may have happened to cause the death of Kurt, but for whatever reasons,Courtney seemed to want this film banished forever. She (Courtney)goes out of her way to monkey wrench this film project from frame one (she denied the use of any & all of Kurt's music with Nirvana,and even denied use of any film or video clips of Nirvana,leaving only A.P.I. press release photographs available,plus Courtney seemed to get to the interview subjects to say as little as possible). What we are basically left with is a spite project (Broomfield used as much usable footage,sans music & video footage)to cobble together a basically empty film that says pretty much nothing worth the 95 minute running time of this film). It's your time (but don't say I didn't warn you). Rated 'R' by the MPAA,this film has raunchy language & testimony of some of the more sordid details of Cobain's life & death.
About halfway through this "documentary" I suddenly realized that the film may, in fact, have been a "mockumentary". Consider the following:* The director/interviewer kept saying to the audience "I wanted to play such-and-such a song by Kurt/Nirvana, but the record label wouldn't give me permission, so here is another song by some band you've never heard of" * The complete ineptitude of the celebrity stalkers, whose digital camera runs out of battery power just as they get close to the studio that Courtney Love is recording in... and later are so nervous at an official function (where they are pretending to be the media) that they actually fail to ask Courtney Love the required questions.* The appearance of El Duce and his band "The Mentors" singing songs about sex slaves while dressed in leather executioner's gear - and then discovering that HE'S the guy who claims Courtney Love asked him to knock off Kurt.* In-depth Interviews with drug addicts and other "low-life" who claim to have met Kurt.* Courtney Love's father interpreting certain Nirvana lyrics as being a reference to LSD (a questionable complaint coming from someone who used to work as a roadie for the Grateful Dead).* The interviewer/director getting up at an official ACLU function and speaking directly AFTER Courtney Love's speech. (didn't anyone actually notice?) As all these things came together, I honestly felt that the documentary was SO bad that it could not be anything else but deliberate. Armed with the theory that this was actually a mockumentary I was surprised to learn from a cursory internet search that the film is actually a real attempt at a documentary.Given the complete disaster that this documentary is, the only film that it could therefore be compared to is Ed Wood's "Plan Nine From Outer Space". The aimlessness and ineptitude of the documentary is so pronounced that it actually becomes quite entertaining after a while. As soon as El Duce and The Mentors came into the equation I was almost howling on the floor laughing. The conspiracies surrounding Cobain's death should have been treated seriously - but they are examined in such a way as to almost be an insult to those who made the conspiracies up, let alone the memory of Cobain.Neither Dave Grohl nor Krist Novoselic (the other two members of Nirvana) are interviewed or even seen throughout the film. Other major figures, such as Kurt's immediate family, the band's manager and other record company execs are also missing from the film. Instead we are treated to a cavalcade of background figures (most of whom are drug addicts) who claim to have met and influenced Cobain way before he was a star and who all, for some reason, think that it is possible that Kurt had been murdered.Actual important leads - such as evidence that Kurt's credit card was used a few days after his death - are mentioned but never followed up and are eventually forgotten in favour of tracking down the mysterious (and ultimately hilarious) El Duce and spending time with clueless celebrity stalkers who spend more time on camera talking about what they do rather than actually doing anything.In summary, the documentary itself is far more entertaining than the subject it purports to be investigating - but entertaining only because of its chaotic and misguided interviewer who interviews all the wrong people and investigates all the wrong theories. It is about as compelling as driving past a flaming car wreck that had run over and killed a circus clown.