Nice try Gus

Saturday Morning, post insomnia.

I had my first paralyzing dream last night. You know the one where you wake up and you cannot move. Totally paralyzed. Freaked the shit out of me. I think it may have to do with a few things. One, I couldn't sleep a goddamned wink last night and two, I couldn't get the pseudo Kurt Cobain biopic movie Lord Duke and I had just suffered through out of my head.
I am a huge Nirvana fan and equally intrigued with Kurt Cobain. I still have a tattered scrapbook containing all the news clippings of his suicide and all the major magazines covering his death. Its funny how teenagers in the 60's kept scrapbooks of The Beatles and dreamy photos of Davey Jones and this teenager kept a scrapbook of his dead hero with dreary photos of his splayed out legs, post shotgun blast to Valhalla. But I digress.

So when I learned that Film Director Gus Van Sant was helming a Biopic about Cobain titled "Last Days" I couldn't think of a better guy to bring it to the screen. After all this is the Director who has brought us such great pictures like "Good Will Hunting", "My Own Private Idaho" and my personal favorite "Drugstore Cowboy". Of course the Cobain estate would not give Van Sant permission to use Kurts name or songs so they created a character named "Blake". Blake is based on Cobain as he is a doped out grunge rocker who is hiding out at his home in the woods of the Pacific Northwest, ignoring friends, family,bandmembers and even a private detective. But then again its not Kurt at all. Sure he looks like him and dresses EXACTLY like him and even plays a song very much like a tune Kurt would pen but its not Kurt. In fact you would really have no damn idea what this film was really about unless you were aware of Cobain and his story. Maybe Gus figured everyone knows Cobain's story. I would like to think Kurt's last day on earth wasn't much like Van Sant's version. Blake walks through the woods, makes some food, mumbles to himself incoherently all while avoiding practically everyone around him. The film itself looks beautiful. The rich colors and cinematography is spot on. It's a wonderful film to look at. That's where the wonder ends. Whoever did the sound for the dialouge should be shot. The ambient noises (the church bells) and foley work (your basic sound effects) is great but every time someone speaks (which is rare) you will find yourself cranking your TV or surround volume up to Spinal Tap 11. Prepare to keep adjusting the volume and whatever you do, do not watch this at night if there is anyone sleeping in your house. It will drive you crazy trying to be courteous to your snoozing roomies while trying to figure out what the fuck Blake is saying to his bowl of Cocoa Puffs. He continues to stumble around his Castle like home while his roomies crank the Velvet Underground and continue on using Blake for all he's worth. Eventually we come to the end and we all know what happens there. At this point, and I am copping from many other reviewers here, we start to egg Blake on and hope this trip to the greenhouse is his last so he can put himself and we the viewers out of our collective misery.

With "Last Days", Van Sant brings us the eye candy with no flavor. I can see why all the Nirvana fans are up in arms. "Blake" is no Kurt and with the exception of a wonderful song written and performed in the film by Michael Pitt who plays Blake all is pretty much lost. Then after all this, the movie nearly redeems itself at the end when Van Sant pulls an incredibly simple but moving shot in the greenhouse that evokes the only true image of Kurt and you don't know if you should smile or cry. You will know it when you see it.

All in all, "Last Days" is a great looking but very arty piece of crap. If you can make it through the film I applaud you and I hope Kurt forgives Gus. I know his heart was in the right place but he misses the mark here. So rent "Last Days" at your own risk and be prepared to keep your finger on the volume button.


keeping his finger somewhere,

justino