“LAST DAYS” (2005)

Starring: Michael Pitt, Asia Argento & Harmony Korine
Written & Directed by Gus Van Sant

Polly Staffle Rating: *

Is it just me or has Gus Van Sant lost his mind? I enjoy movies that are different and always seek out directors that have their own voice. I used to have great respect for Van Sant’s work. “Drugstore Cowboy” was great. “My Own Private Idaho” was good. Even “To Die For” was good. I never saw “Goodwill Hunting” or “Finding Forrester” but from what I understand those are pretty much studio movies.

Then came “Gerry” which I never saw, but heard was painfully boring. I saw and hated the Columbine inspired “Elephant” and thought it was one of the most pretentious pieces of garbage I had ever seen.

Along comes “Last Days.” It’s a movie loosely based on Kurt Cobain’s demise starring Michael Pitt, Asia Argento and “Kids” writer Harmony Korine. Has potential right? Well, it’s just plain awful. Maybe it’s not as bad as “Elephant,” but it’s just as boring. On top of that it’s a slap in the face to Nirvana fans and Cobain supporters.

Pitt stars as Blake, a “rock and roll cliché” or that’s what he’s called in the movie. We follow along as he strips nude and goes for a swim, makes macaroni and cheese, watches a Boyz-II-Men video, eats cereal, puts on a dress, mumbles, stares blankly as people talk to him on the phone and in person and plays music. We assume he is the one playing the music, but we aren't sure because the scene is filmed outside a window and we can't really tell what is going on inside.

Even when we think something funny or exciting is going to happen, it doesn’t. There is a scene when a man who reminds me of Cleveland Brown from “Family Guy” comes to sell Blake a yellow page ad and it goes nowhere. There’s also a scene with Argento's bare ass, but she leaves the room and the camera focuses on the Boy-II-Men video for about two minutes straight. There is a scene where Korine pops up at a club and talks about Dungeons & Dragons, but Blake leaves even though he just walked into the place.

Then after all this excitement, Blake dies. We never see how he dies and it is never explained because Gus Van no longer believes in dialogue or any kind of film structure. Some cliché. Where’s the sex, booze and drugs? None here. We can read into a few scenes that he is using drugs or is about to use drugs, but he is never seen using drugs. He also mumbles and stumbles around so much that he makes Ozzy Osbourne look as articulate as Bill Clinton. If Blake is so high and out of it, how is he able to evade so many people by running and hiding when they come looking for him?

Not only do we not see his death, there’s no speculation as to what happened either. All of the blanks have to be filled in. If you have never heard of Cobain and you watch this, you will have no clue that this guy was a millionaire because the locations he is in and out of here are filthy. You will have no idea that he was a brilliant song writer that revolutionized the music industry. And though you need to know about Cobain’s life to even make sense of this film, it’s sure to distance itself from him with a disclaimer at the end. As a filmmaker, use some creative initiative here and fill in blanks about Cobain’s death, not make a movie that strips the man of his dignity and is boring as hell.

If you can take anything from this movie, it’s here you have a man, who was loved by many, yet was completely lost and alone when he died because he surrounded himself with people that didn’t care about him. See, Gus Van Sant is a genius. He’s making a film about the tragedy of a man who had the world in his pocket and showing us that it’s not pretty. Unlike Oliver Stone’s “The Doors,” which painted such a glamorous picture of Jim Morrison dying fat, washed up, high and nude in a bath tub.

Gus Van Sant has it all wrong though. No one thinks Cobain is great because of how he died and it’s not how he lived that made him great. What makes Cobain so great is he had his own voice. A voice that was fresh in a time that rap and pop music ruled. He had a voice that everyone under 30 wanted to hear because he was so in tune with them - a generation of slackers. Most of all, it was an exciting and engaging voice. Something Gus Van Sant apparently no longer has.

- CCF, February 2006