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Kurt Cobain About a Son review
:. Director: AJ Schnack
:. Genre: Documentary
:. Running Time: 1:36
:. Year: 2006
:. Country: USA
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When music journalist Michael Azerrad interviewed Kurt Cobain for his book Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana, he didn't know that these long conversations would become a historical document after the emblematic Nirvana singer took his own life the following months.
Recorded mostly from dusk till dawn at Cobain's house — you can even hear Courtney Love in the background — these 25 hours of tape are the base for this documentary that aims at bringing the thoughts of a rock legend onscreen.
Putting in image the 96mn cut of a 25-hour interview certainly looked like an artistic challenge, a premise that could also scare most audience members away. Writer/director AJ Schnack took a gamble by deciding not to use any footage of Nirvana, instead giving us a glimpse at the area where Cobain evolved, and this paid off.
Schnack understood that in order to be able to focus on what Cobain says, which is what matters, we shouldn't be distracted by images, which are here just used as a support. While the musician comments on his childhood and rise to fame, we get to see where he grew up and we quickly get the idea of where he was coming from, mentally and emotionally: his surroundings were a catalyst for his depression, his taste for rebellion and his thirst for success.
Of course, you might wonder about Schnack's decision to avoid using any footage or Nirvana song for his film, which I asked him about and actually brings a sense of purity to About a Son. While I agree with this approach, I believe a Nirvana song should have ended the film to bring expected closure to this heartfelt story (Schnack said he considered it for a while.)
After the screening, I ran into some guy who looked like he spent more time at the gym than in theaters and claimed that it was one of the worst films he had seen. I'm using him as an example because he represents everything Cobain and his fans aren't: this documentary, which confirms the image we had of Cobain as some kind of sensitive and doomed rock star who couldn't stand the burden of fame, should be seen by Cobain fans and rock aficionados as well. Combine these rich words with Gus Van Sant's Last Days images and you'll get an ensemble of complimentary works that give a truthful representation of a myth.
Fred Thom
 Documentary Reviews: 1998 - 2011
Documentary Reviews: 2012 - present
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