Last Days
An official selection in the 2005 Cannes Film festival, GUS VAN SANT'S LAST DAYS is inspired by the final hours of Kurt Cobain. The film introduces us to Blake (Michael Pitt, The Dreamers), a brilliant, but troubled musician. Success has left him in a lonely place, where livelihoods rest on his shoulders and old friends regularly tap him for money and favors. The film follows Blake through a handful of hours spent in and near his wooded home... a fugitive from his own life. DVD Features:
Deleted Scenes
Music Video:"Happy Song" by Pagoda
Other:The Making Of
Outtakes:On the set of Gus Van Sant's Last Days: The Long Dolly Shot
Gus Van Sant's Last Days is a film about the death of Kurt Cobain. While the name of the main character has been changed from Kurt to Blake and the setting of the suicide changed from a greenhouse in Seattle to a greenhouse in upstate New York, there's no mistaking this film is the product of Van Sant's imagination pursuing the final, lonely moments of the great '90s icon. Rock biopic fans seeking a traditionally gratifying plot should run as fast as they can from this movie and see Rock Star or Sid and Nancy instead; Gus Van Sant's methodology is all about the slow, oppressive creep of time. One shot lingers excruciatingly long on some random foliage outside Blake's (Michael Pitt, The Dreamers) mansion. In another, he makes cereal. Then he sits on a bench for awhile. Or mumbles dialogue to a Yellow Pages ad salesman played by a real-life Yellow Pages ad salesman. Or gradually collapses while watching a Boyz 2 Men video. Meanwhile, Blake's parasitical hangers-on are slightly more animated, occupying his chilly house and clearly on their way to becoming as existentially destitute as he. Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon appears, pretty much reprising an interventionist role she must have played with the real-life Cobain, but this rock star is far beyond rescuing from the brink. Later, when Blake ventures into town to see a punk show, he is cornered by an acquaintance played by Harmony Korine, who tells him a hilarious story about playing Dungeons and Dragons with Jerry Garcia. Where the accumulation of small moments like these don't add up to much drama, they create a pervading sense of dread and sad inevitability. In his life, Cobain railed against all that was phony and hyped; by crafting a visual poem resolutely defiant of rock star spectacle, Van Sant honors the late singer as sincerely as he can, by keeping it real. --Ryan Boudinot
Last Days Accessories
Last Days Reviews
One of the reviews on the back on the box said, "...Gus Van Sant's Masterpiece!". What a load of crap that statement is. When I bought this DVD, I was expecting a fictionilized account of Nirvana Lead Singer, Kurt Cobain's last few days before he committed suicide. What I got was actor Micheal Pitt stumbling around, mumbling to himself, and falling down a lot. Most of the time I couldn't hear him at all, and what I could hear didn't make the least bit of sense. I suffered thru this "film" (and I use that term loosely), two times. Once to see it for the first time ever, then again with the subtitles on, which let me see what Micheal Pitt was really mumbling to himself. I know that "Blake" is supposed to be so messed up on drugs that he doesn't know what he's doing, but it makes for a really bad "film". One other thing, Lucas Haas is in this too, and the Gay scene he has is kinda wierd, it's like it was just tacked on for no other reason than it's something Mr. Van Sant wanted and didn't know where else to put it.
Overall I give this "film" a 2 out of 5 stars. Don't waste your time with it, go out and get one of the Doc-U-Drama's made about Kurt Cobain's Suicide instead. You'll be glad you did.
Silver Surfer
Jan. 7, 2010
This was the worst movie I have ever seen. I had to continually watch it because I was falling asleep over and over again. Boring, uninteresting, and bias! Completely horrible and the only reason I watched it was for my true love of Kurt Cobain! I would not even give it a star if I had the choice.
After just seeing "Last Days", I wondered just what it was I saw. After googling "Kurt Cobain", it all became clear. Having no experience with "Grunge" music (of which there were examples in the film), I didn't know what Cobain's influence was, nor his popularity among the devotees of that particular style of music.
"Last Days" is the sad final goodbye of this enigmatic young man. It is doubly sad that he used drugs to blunt the depression he felt at how his life was "progressing" at that point.
Gus Van Sant's treatment of the film is reminiscent of "Elephant". Little dialog, and long shots, maybe too long, to tell a story. After his disastrous attempt at remaking "Psycho", it comes as no surprise he would change (permanently?) his cinematic style. Personally, I like the way he's doing things now. "Last Days" came across somewhat atmospheric and surreal.
I found the visits by the two men spreading their religion and the advertising salesman very funny. They dove ahead, oblivious to the indifference that was staring them in the face. Conversely, Blake's (Michael Pitt) absolute abhorrence for doing anything to further his career just underscores his drive to do what ultimately killed him. Very sad.
All the performances were very good, and I happen to be a fan of Michael Pitt. This young man has come a long way in a very short time. I look forward to any film he happens to be in, just to see how he stretches himself. That his dialog consisted of nothing more than mumbling, is in itself a feat. Try doing that for an hour or two. I dare you. It's not as easy as one would think, and Pitt had to do it for DAYS.
All tolled, "Last Days" is a very well done film by Van Sant, maybe not his best, but up there!
In his review of "Last Days," Roger Ebert said it is "a definitive record of death by gradual drug exhaustion. After the chills and thrills of 'Sid & Nancy' and 'The Doors,' here is a movie that sees how addicts usually die, not with a bang but a whimper."
Ebert is right, and it's why this film works so well in my opinion. My girfriend was bored to the point of anger while watching this. I was transfixed.
I fully understand why some will be bored. Nothing much happens here. The camera crawls around a lot, seemingly uninterested in its subjects, meandering here and pausing there for no apparent reason. The "star" Blake barely utters a sentence. Supporting characters come and go without consequence or explanation. They talk at Blake sometimes, but we come to realize no one can talk "to" him.
Blake is utterly lost and alone, and if the film's point is to make us share in that experience, it is successful. Kim Gordon's character is the only one to make a real attempt at "saving" Blake from himself, but by that point we already know that he is beyond redemption.
Several movies have been made about addiction, some good, some bad. Last Days may be impossible to describe in such terms. It is, however, highly effective. It's only fault may be that it's far "too real" for the average Hollywood-fed consumer to digest.
This is the story of the last days of Kurt Cobain's life. Though he can't really be called Kurt Cobain, because Courtney might sue. So we have him depicted as Blake- a successful rock star who just wants to be left alone. He urinates in a stream, he eats noodles and he runs away whenever he sees someone at his door. His house is populated with hangers-on and drug-fiends, and just in case you didn't get that- the song Heroin by The Velvet Underground plays. Blake is depressed and cannot be bothered with life- but he has more costume changes than a Mariah Carey concert here. Remember Kurt in the red and black striped sweater? He wears it in the film. Remember him in the black dress? He wears it in the film. The hunting cap? Yep! He wears it here.
This film is so incredibly tedious that it almost becomes offensive. It is as if the director has tried to mirror Kurt's obvious depression and boredom in the film-making. We even get a 30 second shot of a tree at one point- for no apparent reason. Let me get this out of the way- I am a huge Nirvana fan. I am a huge fan of movies. I prefer slow, thoughtful films over Hollywood blockbusters. All I ask from a director is that he move me in some way. Any way! Make me laugh a little. Make me cry. Make me gasp in awe just once at how beautifully framed a shot is. If the rest is substandard I can forgive them, as long as there is something to justify me having sat through their movie. Just do something within 93 minutes that I can take away with me. The main problem is this: There isn't a story here. Kurt Cobain's last few days: He ate, he shot up, he fell over and he shot himself. That is it. Don't offend me by trying to pass this off as something arty and thoughtful. It's easy to say that if someone doesn't like this film then they just didn't get it. It's their fault. They were expecting somthing more conventional like 'Ray' or 'Walk The Line'. No. Chances are that if you're gonna see this film then you're going to expect something different than your average biopic.
I had heard going into that it was tedious, boring and pointless, but I was willing to give it a chance anyway. What you get is an hour and a half of pretensious waffle. There has been some criticisms aimed at this film that there is not enough dialogue. Wrong. There is too much. The man from the Yellow Pages? The hangers-on? Blake reading aloud his suicide note- just in case we didn't get the idea that that's what he was writing? It's all surplus. I could have congratulated a film where the camera lingered solely on the Blake character and showed us no-one else. I could have even accepted his Beavis and Butthead mumblings to himself. What I cannot accept is a film filled with bad dialogue, bad acting and such obvious references to the real life Kurt whilst staunchly denying that it is based on him. My wife turned to me ten minutes into the film. She said "This is really tedious". I told her to give it a chance. Not much long afterwards I was willing Blake to hurry up and blow his brains out.
Truly one of the worst films I have ever had the misfortune to have paid to watch. There is an interesting story about the life of Kurt Cobain that would make a half decent film if made by even the most cack-handed of directors. This isn't it. Why didn't Oliver Stone just make The Doors about the last days of Jim Morrison's life? Because it would have been boring. Instead he showed us the more interesting moments that peppered his short stay on this Earth. Personally, I think it would be a mistake to make a biopic about Kurt Cobain, but if it happens I can guarantee that it will make an infinitely more interesting film than this one.
*Follow-up: Some months later:
I am pleased to say that I managed to offload my copy of this and receive a whopping £2 for it. If you are still in any doubt about how bad this film is I urge you to check out the hilarious music video included on the dvd. Michael Pitt and his awful band parody Nirvana and spit pizza at the camera, whilst they mockingly "play happy" for the camera. Truly abysmal stuff. And after sitting through 5 minutes of the Michael Pitt interview I am now convinced that he was in fact playing himself in the movie- what an absolutely boring, aloof and idiotic man.
|
