Cobain: Montage of Heck

I found Montage of Heck to be a scatter-brained documentary that couldn't decide which direction to go. It grabs at various forms of media culled from Cobain's family, and tosses them into a blender, with splashes of interviews and band footage.

There were some stunningly rotoscoped animation, using narration from Cobain, that briefly takes you through his dejected teenage years in Aberdeen, Washington. They also rendered the years Cobain spent living with his first girlfriend, Tracy Marander, who supported him when Nirvana started getting noticed. Marander isn't shown (only in interviews and rare photos), we just see how Kurt spent his days being creative while she was at work. Anyway, not long after, the band signed to Sub Pop and released Bleach.

There were also drawings and writings (many would make Jack Kerouac's "spontaneous prose" seem lucid by comparison) from his sketchbooks / journals, that were brought to life using muted computer graphics. These were scattered throughout, and became laborious after about the 10th time. Still, the music that accompanied them were great. We get to hear plenty of unreleased material, and I even noticed some Nirvana covers, which felt redundant.

Now, cue in Courtney Love. Sigh. It was annoying seeing her all dolled up by a makeup artist, chain-smoking and sounding incredibly untruthful about Kurt's last couple of months. I won't ruin it, but it's towards the end of the film and it made me more suspicious of her. The home videos of Kurt, Courtney, and Frances Bean were quite touching, although at times it got dark, especially some moments with just Kurt and Courtney (not 100% on who recorded them). You know he was the happiest he's ever been, but they were also plunging into the abyss of heroin and other drugs.

Overall, Montage of Heck started off as a sweet concoction that ultimately left me with a bitter aftertaste. I hear that 'About a Son' is the superior documentary, so I'll watch that in hopes of getting a deeper insight into Kurt Cobain and Nirvana.

This is a documentary that presents another side of Kurt Cobain unseen by the public. What many don't understand is that, like Dylan's 3rd album, "Another side of Bob Dylan," this is simply all this movie is, another perspective of the great grunge genius. Kurt was never a man, always a boy with the gift of genius. Unfortunately, all the risk factors for suicide were there: childhood abandonment, genetic family history of bi-polar illness and suicide (two uncles committed suicide), addiction to heroin, stress of fame, Severe Depression and, of course, a highly unhealthy and destructive relationship with Courtney Love. He never had a chance really, and those who loved him had no clue, couldn't have, at the path of destruction he was on. And yet, he left us with perhaps the best rock songs ever, especially on Nevermind, and I am sure his legacy will last for a long, long time. The scenes in this movie depict a Cobain at his best and his worst, strung out in his daughter's presence and raging on the stage. Like Amy Winehouse, Cobain was on a mission to self-destruction. We've seen this before. Syd Barrett,Ian Curtis, Nick Drake, the list goes on. For those blessed with genius, the normal developmental milestones don't mean quite so much. At 21, most of us are struggling with independent living skills, young adulthood, etc. Not so with Kurt Cobain. He was busy proving to the world his potential, which like Dylan, he was very aware he was predestined for. The Blade-runner line, "The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long" is all too applicable to the life of Cobain, especially in light of his bi-polar illness. When I heard, "You Know You're Right," I couldn't help but to feel helpless, angry at what might have come had he somehow lived, had he accepted Duff mckagan's invitation to chill with him that night (a Mckagan knew he was suffering). But like Poe, his creativity came from a well of mental illness, and that is the frame we must view Cobain in, for the kind of illness he suffered from is the kind that cannot last in it's piercing incarnation, at least without medication, be it heroin or lithium.

I was hoping for this film to be great. As a Nirvana fan (most people who claim to like Nirvana have no idea what 'Incesticide' or even 'Bleach' is), I was looking forward to a thorough insight into this beloved figure who is still shrouded in a fog of misrepresentation and false hero worship. Unfortunately the film did not live up to expectations as it seemed the Director, "Brett Morgan" was more concerned in making the film aesthetically pleasing than emotionally interesting.

First off, a few positives about the film. 1. The way it portrays Courtney Love: She is despised by most music fans who believe she ruined Nirvana, but it's pretty clear that Kurt's self destruction was mostly his doing and his natural tendencies which add an appropriate sense of melancholy to the movie. 2. Some of the montages were nice when not excruciatingly overdone. 3. The music of course was good, it had a wide range from their b-sides (Dive), their first album (Mr. Moustache) and their popular stuff (Territorial Pissings) Including some fascinating covers of the Velvet Underground and the Beatles. 4. The story about Kurt and the "Retarded Girl" was absolutely fascinating.

However, the pacing of the film is truly awful. The first hour trudges along after a promising start and becomes bogged down in the Director's own agenda to show off his style. By far the best scenes in the film is just raw footage of Kurt and Courtney living alone in their dingy apartments and hotel rooms.

The film is appropriately titled, as the film is almost solely montages that don't progress the story and just serve again to stroke the Director's ego. Another example is the overuse of EXTREMELY LOUD to absolute silence.

Also, the ending of the film is not only unsatisfying, but extremely clichéd. There are countless films that have the same end title card and it felt awfully lazy. This is also disappointing because we experience none of the emotional damage that Cobains death has, which would have been far more interesting than 5 minutes of repetitive montages.

What's sad is that this film claimed to be the definitive Cobain Doco, but it's so obvious that there is plenty more interesting video and audio recordings made by Cobain HIMSELF that were left out in order to make way for dead end animation montages and hyper editing. The film could have been just as emotionally effective with 20 minutes cut from it.

However, I am still at least glad I saw the film, all the less wanky stuff was honestly well directed and Cobain's home video footage is nothing short of riveting and sometimes becomes really funny and beautiful.

So I give this film a 6. At the end of the day, I feel it would have been far more interesting just to sort through 3 hours of Cobain's home recordings than to watch a Director trying to steal the limelight from his charismatic subjects.

It's 21 years since Kurt Cobain's death by suicide and his status as a legendary alternative rock figure and totem for a disaffected generation has not dimmed in the intervening period.

Although I had been eagerly awaiting this documentary, at the same time I approached it with a wariness more than half expecting it to be a depressing encounter. Given what I already knew about the mental difficulties and addiction problems Kurt faced during his short life and the eventual sad outcome it was hard to believe that anything of a positive nature could be wrung from seeing this.

This is the first official documentary made about the life of Kurt Cobain. It has been made with the co-operation of his family. His daughter Frances Bean is an executive producer. His parents, sister, wife- Courtney Love, first girlfriend and fellow band member Chris Novoselic (the third band member Dave Grohl is the notable absentee) have all contributed, allowing themselves to be interviewed.

The expectation of access to intimate home videos as well as Kurt's own drawings, writing, outpourings etc and other previously unseen footage bringing with it the possibility of gaining a clearer view on Kurt Cobain's life is probably the thing which will entice most viewers to go see this. This heavy reliance on this intimate source material makes for an intense portrayal of the subject. It's also what makes it a success. It's noticeable how often for instance on screen we are shown up-close, his own words in his hand-writing in the original copybook complete with stains and other words and sentences crossed out. It's the closest place the director can bring us, next to occupying Kurt's mind. Much of the writing is angry and nihilistic but there are lots of lists too- of things to do for example; it all suggests a wildly active mind and one not easy to keep a rein on.

Home videos himself and Courtney produced, both while pregnant with, and then after Frances Bean was born similarly get us up-close and personal. It's excruciating to watch but compelling too- a couple wrapped up in each other but also in their drug dependency. When Frances Bean is born his love for her is touching but then the videos also reveal the declining health as the heroin addiction spirals.

As intense and personal as it is there are no major revelatory insights into the life or death of Kurt Cobain in this documentary. This is not a failing of the documentary as I don't think any revelatory new angles or expositions could have been expected. As well as this the title (taken from the name of a mix-tape Kurt put together) does indicate obfuscation or a lack of clarity or certainty about a picture drawn. So it should be; where a life ends so tragically definitive answers can never be presented and any distillation of his life or death into neat summations is thankfully and rightly avoided.

The documentary tells us the following (which in essence we already know or suppose we know). Kurt was an energetic, intelligent child who became withdrawn and angry as he got older, probably owing largely to his parent's divorce. He was often a lone, self-hating teenager who found a release from his angst in smoking pot and then at a certain age he discovered punk music which lit a torch and he began to teach himself guitar and write music. He was disaffected enough and genius enough to write brilliantly disaffected genius songs. His music struck a chord, Nirvana became huge almost overnight and then he struggled with the idea of being held up as a spokesperson for a generation. Desperately insecure, above all else he craved love and a need for rootedness- a family to belong to. He found this with Courtney Love and later their daughter. He sought refuge in them away from what he saw as a hostile world but tragically he also sought refuge in heroin.

This documentary told me little I didn't already know about the great Kurt Cobain. With supposed access to numerous home videos, journals and members of Kurt's immediate family, friends and band mates, I find it curious the aspects of Kurt's life the director chose to focus on. It is evident that the aim of the documentary is to portray Kurt as a troubled and depressed soul, yet it doesn't provide any real insight into the events that created such a feeling in him. One such oddity is the interview with Kurt's mother which never delved deeper than the surface points of some of the major events of Kurt's life (ones that we've already learned more about from other journalists in years past). For instance: They touch on Kurt's homelessness as a teen, yet don't venture into the circumstances that caused his homelessness or have any depth of discussion about this major point in Kurt's life. How Kurt came to be the man and artist that captivated so many is still as mysterious now as it was before I watched this documentary.

Apart from the documentary's questionable focus and content, the style in which the story is told is well done, with fluid interchanges between Kurt's journal entries, old home videos, photos, sound recordings and interviews. The use of animation helped pull everything together and added a dreamy dimension to the story telling.

All in all an enjoyable, well made film, but an informative and insightful documentary it is not.