Product: Last Days (2 Disc Special Edition)
Rating: 3.0
For serious thought . . .
From reading reviews of this movie, I expected it to be just awful . . . but it's not. It's an interesting case study of one of rock's great personalities and innovators. Obviously, those expecting to be entertained are not, and those expecting "insight" at least will get that. As hard as it may be for some to accept, Grunge is nothing more than the way it looks and sounds. Although, Cobain's greatness is debatable, his legacy will outlast debate, as his music and style defined American youth angst for the 80s-90s. There always has been youthful angst, and there always will be, it's just that Nirvana excelled at defining its generation.Gus Van Sant seems to have lost a few fans along the way to Last Days, who feel that he is out-of-touch when, in fact, Last Days is done in proper Van Sant form (Indie) and defines Cobain and Grunge perfectly. Maybe all that inner anger takes its toll more deeply than before imagined, and its effect will be felt in multiple ways reflected in youth defined that way. I admire Van Sant for making movies he wants to make. Even his great successes had little regard for what the public may want. For this alone, true fans should stick with him and, at the least, try to understand his motives. Van Sant lately has fixated on case studies of troubled young white males, who it seems America has forgotten (in a sense). For better or worse, being a young white male in America has no special meaning.Last Days is an emotional piece and we are taken into the nearly vacuous mind of Blake/Kurt, in his final hours, who doesn't have much left to live for. Too much too soon, maybe? It seems that his creativity coincided with economic necessity. After success, where to then? Moreover, he must have had some very serious emotional conflicts.Atmosphere is very key in this film. The photography is well done in the sense that it adequately compensates for lack of dialogue. Isolation and despondency are made clear by the vistas, fields, verdant greenery, and one man being out there alone. It is helpful to know that the film begins with Blake/Kurt having escaped from a drug clinic spending the first night in the woods near his country estate. Van Sant's use of the Boys II Men video, "On Bended Knee," serves to emphasize (possibly) one's realization at the end of all hope. The lyrics in this song are of a man who wants to "go back to the way that things used to be." And he is begging and praying for that possibility. Maybe, Blake/Kurt didn't pray to any god, but through Van Sant's artistic license, the video suggests that he realized he was in trouble and wanted to return from the brink of destruction to a former good place, but had no one to help. Therefore, he continued composing his suicide note. Apparently, the Hollywood machine consumed him, feet first.Avoid this film if you don't have the patience to follow a nearly catatonic case study for 97 minutes, just to realize something that you already know.