Ok, that’s not much of a headline, but we didn’t want to write “Review: Kurt Cobain talking documentary.” We saw this thing on opening night a few weeks back, but so many movies, so little time (boo hoo, we know).
As you’ve probably read (and can glean from above) about AJ Schnack‘s “Kurt Cobain: About A Son,” Cobain isn’t actually in the film, or rather he is, but only his spectral voice. The documentary was based on some 25 hours of interviews that rock writer Michael Azzerad (“Our Band Could Be Your Life“) conducted with Cobain for the Nirvana book “Come As You Are.”
As has been noted multiple times, the filmmakers don’t call it a “documentary,” rather, the film’s website calls it a “profound and almost dream-like account of Cobain’s own successes and failure,” which isn’t that far off the mark superlatives not withstanding.
We honestly thought this thing was going to be laborious, but once you got settled in and accustomed to what what’s being presented – an interview laid overtop scenic and idyllic Pacific Northwest footage and the dreamy rhythm and pace – it turned out to be pretty engaging and thoughtful piece on this unlikely superstar’s psyche at the time (there’s a nice, slightly-melancholy rainy Sunday afternoon quality to it too).
Fans familiar with Nirvana and Kurt will have heard these touchstone, formative stories many times before (people thought he was gay in highschool and he became proud of that outsider status, he sleept under a bridge, meeting his mentor/friend Melvins leader Buzz Osbourne was a pivotal moment, etc. etc.), but we were struck afterwards how some people really had no clue who he was (“I thought he would be some mumbling junkie,” some clueless asshole said afterwards). The culture of complaint was alive and well back in the early ’90s and without calling him a whiner, there was a definitely a strong thread of nagging cultural dissatisfaction (the buzzword for it back then was disenfranchisement) throughout.
The stories and material are rehashed, but the way it’s heard and presented is what makes the film surprisingly compelling. What you learn afterwards is throughout the film whenever some locale, building or setting is being shown, it actually directly has context to the things Cobain is talking about. Essentially, you get a visual tour of Kurt’s childhood through to his adult life and all the relevant homes, places, schools and haunts he spent time in (throughout places like Tacoma, Aberdeen, Portland, Olympia, Seattle, etc.).
Gorgeously shot to contemplative, almost Malick-like photography, Steve Fisk and Ben Gibbard’s plaintive, electronic-y score – almost low-key Postal Service sounding at times – was pretty well suited to the slow-moving material. There’s no Nirvana music in it and at the post-screening Q&A the director said this was a conscious decision (though one he came to not without trying to fit a song in there somewhere).
The songs in the film outside of the score are essentially “Kurt’s mixtape,” – music that he grew up with and would mention various times in his interviews with Azzerad including tracks by Scratch Acid, the Vaselines, Bad Brains, Half Japanese and more well-known tracks by Bowie, R.E.M. and Iggy Pop. The soundtrack disc features many of these tracks, but the film also showcases songs by Boston, Queen (“It’s Late“), Young Marble Giants (“Credit in the Straight World“) , Big Black (“Kerosene“), The Breeders (“Iris“), Teenage Fanclub (“Star Sign“).
Illutstrating life moving on and other bands arriving on the scene, there’s also footage of Band of Horses playing “The Funeral.”
Those looking for Courtney Love is this experience (that sums it up more than a ‘film’ per se) will be disappointed. You hear her referenced maybe once or twice maximum and very briefly you hear her urging Kurt to bring baby formula upstairs as he talks to Azzerad in what turns out to be his kitchen (Azzerad called these interviews an “intimate and intense” experience and said Kurt’s death really knocked him out emotionally for years; he had filed the interviews away long ago and only pulled them out years later at Schnack’s behest).
“We had a lot in common,” Michael said afterwards with a wistful expression, clearly each time he’d seen the film taking an emotional toll. “Looking at the film, I think about how I was able to overcome those problems with this equipment,” pointing to his body, “while he just wasn’t.”
Part of the motivation to make the film Azzerad said was the desire to “clear the air,” separate the myth from fact and set the record straight. “The funny, lucid, thoughtful Kurt you hear in this movie — that was the real Kurt for 26 of his years. People need to know that.”
Trailer: “Kurt Cobain: About A Son”
AJ Schnack and Michael Azzerad At the IFC New York Premiere