Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Last Days (2005)

Last Days. This one's a stumper. I'll start with two general thoughts:

1. I love Gus Van Sant.

2. There are shots in this film where Michael Pitt looks so much like Kurt Cobain it's chilling.

This isn't really the kind of movie one enjoys. It's slow paced, sad, quiet, no real characters to invest in and no real plot. It's the kind of flm one dedicates to a memory; a film that wouldn't exist without its reference. A film where people who are already invested in some way might want to spend a few hours watching.

If you don't know what it's "about" let me break it down. A blond grunge rock star (Blake) wanders around his large home and the surrounding woods, high, avoiding people and then blows his head off in a shed to be found by a maintenance person. There's no point to it, no meaning behind it, no ramifications or pontifications. It's just what happened.


I made the mistake of venturing into the IMDb forum for this movie. Ugh. I need to stop going there in matters concerning dead idols. There's the "this movie is boring and sucks" contingent. The "Kurt Cobain was nothing like this. He was hansome and bright and brillaint" contingent. And the "This is not about Kurt Cobain at all. The character's name is Blake" contingent. Why do dumb people need to exist? Or more specifically in matters involving me - why do they need to watch movies and talk about them? (Door wide open if you think I'm dumb).

This movie is what it is. He's a Kurt Cobain shadow who we watch exist through his last days. There's a scene with Kim Gordon - arguably the only scene with emotion behind it - in which she's trying to convince Blake to leave with her. Imagine being Kim Gorden, who was actually close friends with Kurt Cobain, sitting face to face with this man who is embodying your dead friend so totally. Acting out this scene, pleading with him to come with you. Attempting something you know is going to fail because this is how it went the first time. That's hard core, man. This film is for her.

For the rest of us, it's Gus Van Sant saying this is how it might have gone. Isn't it sad?
Above is one of the final shots of Last Days along with the infamous photo that ran after Kurt Cobain's death.

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