Product: Last Days (2 Disc Special Edition)
Rating: 3.0
An interesting concept and an adventurous director.
I truly appreciate Gus Vant Sant's work. I really do. However, I think "Last Days" was mediocre compared to some other movies of Sant's such as "Elephant" (loosley based around the Columbine shootings.) Last Days posed some interesting insight on to the vastness of lonliness that Blake (or rather Kurt) endured while the rest of the world seemed to rotate during his "last days" on earth. The long shot of Blake making music with loop effects shows exactly how musicians like Kurt worked (maybe myself included), where you didn't see Blake play music very much, if not, at all, until the one moment he seems to explode with artistic energy. I can clearly see how Sant wanted to portray this type of emotion, and he did it well. However, the film requires patience where there is no concrete plot and nothing really ever happens. But that doesn't make it bad. It merely presents a period of time rather than a story. This is very characteristic of Sant's work. A person who did not know who Kurt Cobain was may be a little more at loss with this movie. Yet, the final scene of Kurt rising out of his body in silence was so surreal in showing him finally escaping his lonliness. That was an excellent scene. With that said, it provided some interesting ideas, but then again, I watch movies to be stimulated... and "Last Days" succeeded only on a moderate level for me. However, its still a movie worth renting (maybe not buying, but it is rather an art piece which gives it some special aethetic value.) If you get turned off by this director because this movie, trying seeing "Elephant." If you don't care for that either, then you just may not be a fan of Sant's work. I really like him but "Last Days" was clearly not his best.