Review: Last Days - Page 2

Associations can easily take control after a while (Gordon and Korine’s appearances are fairly late in the film) in a predominately uneventful story. Hardcore fans of Nirvana who normally wouldn’t sit through such a film might delight in Pitt’s costumes, recreations of Cobain’s most familiar articles from his black and red sweater to his white, oval sunglasses. Still, those who know enough to pick at Van Sant’s lack of research might dismiss the picture for not attempting more nonfiction than Michael Pitt’s mostly-obscured-face resemblance to their hero. They are reminded that Last Days is not Oliver Stone’s The Doors, although associative thinking provides many correlations to Jim Morrison’s embellished biopic (William Blake and “The Doors of Perception”; a scene set to early Velvet Underground).

The curious millions who’ve pondered Cobain’s death in the eleven years since may never know the real events leading up to his body’s discovery. Skeptics of the official suicide explanation will always exist but all their investigations, books and websites and even the acclaimed documentary Kurt & Courtney (sorry, Oliver, but Nick Broomfield beat you to this one) will never shed definitive light on “the real truth”. The how and why are inconsequential according to Van Sant; only the what is important, its hopelessness constant. He has reason to consider and attempt to extinguish the fascination with celebrity death, having dealt with the similarly tragic downfall of friends River Phoenix and Elliott Smith. Van Sant is only left with his personal reactions to and perceptions of his dearly departed, unable to turn back time or make amends, just like the audience’s one-sided involvement with Blake’s Last Days as well as the world’s experience with Cobain.

Edited: Tan The Man

Article Author: Film Cynic

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