Kurt Cobain biopic - Montage Of Heck

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Grunge Master, Mar 31, 2015.

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  1. mdphunk

    mdphunk Sharing in the groove

    Location:
    Northern VA
    I thought it was great, and I didn't go into the film with high expectations. I thought the balance of painting Kurt both as a tortured soul and gifted artist was right on.

    In advance, I thought it was weird that Grohl wasn't in it, but I'm actually happy he wasn't. He tends to dominate anything he's involved with, so I think it was appropriate for the focus to be on Kurt and for the Nirvana perspective to come from Krist, "The quiet one."
     
  2. BEAThoven

    BEAThoven Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey

    Grohl likes to talk authoritatively about everything these days -- whether he's qualified or not -- and, yes, it sometimes gets a bit tiring when it sounds like a script, but... this is the one subject, the life and death of Kurt Cobain, that I would have actually liked to hear him talk about! He's more than qualified.
     
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  3. bopdd

    bopdd Senior Member

    Location:
    Portland, OR
    Your sentiment is generally what I felt when watching this, though I tended to find the portion devoted to his childhood "illuminating" and the portion devoted to his success and marriage to be more "depressing". Generally, what I took away from this movie was a portrait of the artist as a terminally (and manically) depressed individual with major self-destructive tendencies no matter how many excuses the experts wanted to offer as to what motivated his clinically gloomy state of mind. So many interviewees went on (and on) about how Kurt simply longed for some sort of stable, family life, but everything he did suggested that after a certain age he was destined to reject whatever institution was offered to him (school, home, etc) and that ultimately his chemical imbalance was his own worst enemy. Kurt Cobain might go down as the biggest anti-rock star in history, having glamorized almost no single aspect of his iconic status and barely seeming to enjoy his success. Additionally, the glimpses of his home life and even the interviews with him never portray the kind of introspective brilliance made apparent by his writing and music. Take, for example, the voice-over narration he himself provides in an early segment of the film--it has a very distinct novelistic voice to it, permeating with clarity and of course melancholy that seems to be rarely on display when he's dealing with others in a public setting. He was a truly alienated individual who lived in a constant state of mental and physical pain, and who saved his most intellectual and creative insights for his writing, drawing and performing.
     
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  4. Jose Jones

    Jose Jones Outstanding Forum Member

    Location:
    Detroit, Michigan
    Exactly. Sort of like, "retiring so I can spend more time with my family...."
     
  5. Trixie Jones

    Trixie Jones Raining in my heart

    Location:
    L.A.
    I hear you, but I'm so damn sick of Grohl, I was actually glad he wasn't in it. Krist and Kurt were really close, so I love hearing him talk about Kurt, even if he's not always the most eloquent. But Chad should definitely have been in there...
     
  6. aforchione

    aforchione Forum Resident

    Location:
    Englewood, Florida
    Watched it on HBO....what I got out of it is that depression and hard drugs are not a good mix....and he had NO chance of surviving after he hooked up with Love.

    She probably should have made the documentary about the nanny, or whoever the woman was who cared for her.
     
    Last edited: May 7, 2015
  7. stumpy

    stumpy Forum Resident

    Location:
    South of Nashville
    I really disliked the visuals. You work with what you have, but damn, this was an ugly film. In spots it seemed like they took the video and blurred it on purpose just to give you a break from heavy grain.
     
  8. Edgard Varese

    Edgard Varese Royale with Cheese

    Location:
    Te Wai Pounamu
    About halfway though - got too tired to finish it last night - and it's good but not quite as riveting as I had perhaps expected.
     
  9. DreadPikathulhu

    DreadPikathulhu Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    I finally got a chance to watch this last night and generally enjoyed it. Like many, I found the notebook animations distracting, but I suppose that they had to do something other then the "Ken Burns Effect" and simply pan across them. The notebook entries and occasional voice over were the only way to give Kurt a physical presence in the documentary.

    My impression was that Kurt wanted fame and then got it only to discover that he didn't want the associated scrutiny that went along with it. I really can't blame him as we are almost the same age and I was also married and had a kid at the same time and think back to what a horribly immature **** I was, and how coupling that with almost unlimited fame and money was his downfall.

    I wish that it hadn't ended quite so abruptly and they had spent ten or so minutes between the events in Rome and his death in Seattle. There were several people involved that wanted to help him and tried, but were ultimately rejected.
     
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  10. jupiter8

    jupiter8 Forum Resident

    Location:
    NJ, USA
    I'm a very casual Nirvana fan and it felt like it was missing a lot. Seemed like it was more interested in crafting the legend of Kurt Cobain than telling his story. I would have thought Chad Channing would at least rate a mention. Pat Smear? Wasn't he made an official member of Nirvana by Kurt near the end? I would have though creating a direct link between the pioneering punk bands Kurt loved and his own music might be interesting in a film about Cobain. Kurt's aunt Mari Earl? Wasn't she very important in his life, recording him in her home studio and encouraging his music? I guess that didn't fit the director's vision of painting Kurt as a troubled yet brilliant loner, misunderstood and rejected by his family.
     
  11. fluffskul

    fluffskul Would rather be at a concert

    Location:
    albany, ny
    Within minutes of the documentary's conclusion I noted to my wife that I'd like more of the music nerd stuff... (input from former band members, what the time in the studio was like, creative decisions that went into the legendary albums or the Unplugged Setlist)... But also realized this wasn't THAT documentary...

    #1 - This documentary was about KURT not about NIRVANA (fair enough, Kurt certainly deserves the spotlight)
    #2 - Focused way more on Kurt as a TORTURED SOUL and ROCK STAR than as a musician... this is where they got it wrong. I think this documentary really should've focused more on where Kurt's music was unique to what else was going around, or spot lighted something unique about Nirvana's music rather than focus on him as a somewhat mentally ill hesitant rock star. Hell... I don't think the documentary ever used the phrase "Dropped D Tuning."
     
  12. amoergosum

    amoergosum Forum Resident

    Location:
    Germany
    Exactly!
     
  13. Grunge Master

    Grunge Master 8 Bit Enthusiast Thread Starter

    Location:
    Michigan
    That's the thing that people seem to be missing; it isn't about Nirvana, it's about Kurt Cobain. Why wasn't Grohl in it? Because he only knew Kurt for roughly 3 years. Krist was pretty much best friends with Kurt since their teens, until the drugs took over.

    To be honest, Kurt's mom was kinda full of s***. The part where she says 'I told him, you'd better buckle up...', is pretty much garbage. And she took a couple of shots at Kurt's dad, that she really didn't have to take. They both were crappy parents. And

    And the part about Courtney Love 'almost cheating' is BS, too. She did cheat on him, most likely with Billy Corgan. Not this really matters, Kurt was going to kill himself anyway. That was just kind of the icing on the cake.
     
  14. vamborules

    vamborules Forum Resident

    Location:
    CT
    I cringed when she said that. It's so obviously made up.
     
  15. wavethatflag

    wavethatflag God is love, but get it in writing.

    Location:
    SF Bay Area
    I thought it was good. I know more about Kurt Cobain after it than I did before it. So it did its job. As far as the animations in the movie portraying different things, it made sense to me because Kurt was a pretty good artist also.
     
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  16. MMM

    MMM Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Lodi, New Jersey
    I only saw about half of this, but found what I did very interesting, and need to see the rest.

    Not content related...I was really impressed with how the 8mm footage looked. Does anyone know the company/people behind their restoration/mastering?
     
  17. Todd Fredericks

    Todd Fredericks Senior Member

    Location:
    A New Yorker
    I watched it in the movies tonight. Yes, I think it ended a bit too abruptly. It would have been interesting to see more of a lead up/unfolding of his last few months. He seemed to have a pretty dire life. Unlike a lot of rock star images I think this is a case where no one would want to be in his shoes. Very sad.
     
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  18. wavethatflag

    wavethatflag God is love, but get it in writing.

    Location:
    SF Bay Area
    That's what I came away with also--once he gets to junior high, high school age he seems doomed. The fact he attempted suicide at a young age and was only spared because the train was speeding down the track adjacent to the one he was laying on says it all. He was a tortured person, pretty much.

    Also, it seems to me Courtney Love had very little to do with his problems and demise. To the extent she was trouble, it seems to me he let her into his life because she was exactly that. He certainly wasn't going to attract anyone reasonably well-adjusted. He wanted a serious drug buddy; someone who would let him be a junkie.

    But, I think he was incredibly talented, and I'm glad he made his mark, as brief as his time here was.
     
    Last edited: May 28, 2015
  19. DreadPikathulhu

    DreadPikathulhu Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    Had he not become a rock star, he probably would have ended up like the rest of the junkies walking around my Seattle neighborhood 20 years ago. Many of them had started out as musicians in failed bands.
     
  20. fluffskul

    fluffskul Would rather be at a concert

    Location:
    albany, ny
    Not sure what this comments seeks to prove. Music and drugs tend to go hand-in-hand? Failed artists likely have higher addiction/depression/suicide rates than the general public?
     
  21. DreadPikathulhu

    DreadPikathulhu Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    It's just an observation.
     
  22. Todd Fredericks

    Todd Fredericks Senior Member

    Location:
    A New Yorker
    I agree. I'm still thinking over what my impressions of him are from what I know over the years (or thought I knew) and the film.

    I do not see him as a rock legend or spokesman of a generation. I think he had a lot of talent and some of it was realized but his life was a shambles.

    I really found it rather disturbing a lot of the footage/coverage of the pregnancy and how they were raising the kid. I wonder what would have happened there if he would have lived.

    I think not having David Grohl in the film was missed. Yes, this film is about Kurt but without Nirvana we would most likely not heard of Kurt. Of course he would have had some interesting observations.

    I enjoyed some of the animation and effects with the drawings/lyrics but eventually grew tired of it. The director mentioned in a recoded interview after the film the animation came from his love of "Pink Floyd - The Wall". This didn't work for me because it pulled me out of the film feeling the director was being a bit too artsy-fartsy. The story is compelling enough. Do we really need shiny objects to keep our attention?
     
  23. SammyJoe

    SammyJoe Up The Irons!

    Location:
    Finland
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