Product: Last Days (2 Disc Special Edition)
Rating: 2.0
OK, This Is an Experimental Film, Right? But I Thought Experiments Could Be More Exciting, Not Boring Like This...
You may call them a death-in-real-life trilogy from Gus Van Sant. After `Elephant' and `Gerry' both based on the events that really happened in the real life, now comes another one: `Last Days,' about one substance-addicted rock artist named Blake. But you know that it is Kurt Cobain, and the film's end credit, while disclaiming its direct connection with Cobain, distinctly names his name. Nice touch, isn't it?In this film, Blake (Michael Pitt), recently having escaped from the institute he had been in, walks, walks, walks in the woods back to his mansion, where some of Blake's nondescript `friends' seem to lead comfortable life. And he eats, eats, and eats cornflakes or whatever I do not know. Then he meets a salesman from a yellow page company who talks to Blake (in women's dress) as if everything is normal. You see talkative detective played by Ricky Jay (no card tricks, just talk); plus Lukas Hass, Asia Argento, and some other cameos I didn't care.This is wildly fictional accounts of the death of Cobain, created by the imagination of Gus Van Sant, who opted for more anti-traditional method of narrative. This means the camera lingers on the figure of Blake/Cobain who keeps wandering, mumbling something, and for ordinary filmgoers like me it is excruciating to follow the action of him, even sleep-inducing. If you praise the film for artistic values (and you're entitled to it, I know) you still would have to admit that you are only watching, or perhaps admiring his intentions, or the `truth-of-life' approach of Gus Van Sant, not the life of someone the film is loosely based on.So here is a question - how can you say `Last Days' is not a phony when the film, clearly capitalizing on the fame of Cobain, is about one `Blake'? How can you say the film is interesting and refreshing when Gus Van Sant has already repeated the same `experimental' film-making formula in `Elephant' and Gerry' with his most detached touch?And most of all, just because the film is experimental doesn't mean that it is free from clich? - lingering camera, noisy soundtrack, `natural' lighting, shaky camerawork, etc. -- and in fact it looks like Gus Van Sant is counting on the favorable reactions from the understanding reviewers who are kind to defend, claiming the most obvious - this is experimental. Yes, I know it is. Still that doesn't change the fact the film is dull and self-indulgent.