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Following in the deeply idiosyncratic footsteps of Last Days, About a Son plays more like autobiography than documentary. Gus Van Sant's feature extrapolates moments from the life of Kurt Cobain (with Michael Pitt as a musician named Blake), while A.J. Schnack’s non-fiction film adheres closer to the facts, but advances a more radical Koyaanisqatsi-like approach. First off, Cobain supplies the narration, but the filmmaker avoids pictures of the alternative icon until the end. (He culled the voice-over from interviews conducted by author Michael Azerrad for Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana.) Beyond-the-grave narration isn't a new concept--see Tupac: Resurrection--but Schnack (Gigantic: A Tale of Two Johns) ups the ante by excluding talking heads, concert footage, and other staples of the genre. Instead, he uses still and time-lapse photography to explore Cobain's Northwest, i.e. Aberdeen, Olympia, and Seattle. The artist's unguarded reflections create a sense of intimacy as specific locations illustrate his words. Conversely, the lack of portraiture and self-penned music generates a feeling of absence. The soundtrack combines an ambient score from producer Steve Fisk and Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard with Cobain favorites, like David Bowie, Cheap Trick, and the Vaselines (available on a separate CD). For more specifics, interested parties can always turn to tomes by Azerrad, Gina Arnold, Charles R. Cross, and Everett True. About a Son doesn't presume to provide a definitive portrait, but Schnack's rigorous avoidance of convention results in an experience far more dream-like than depressing. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Are you a Martian?,
By E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews (HALL OF FAME) (TOP 10 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Kurt Cobain:About A Son (DVD)
Unless someone magically comes across one lying in a box somewhere, we are never going to get a Kurt Cobain autobiography. The closest thing we'll get is "Kurt Cobain - About a Son," a documentary cobbled out of Michael Azerrad's interviews with the late rock'n'roll star -- and Cobain both explores his own past and strips away some of his legends.The interviews took place in the early nineties over the course of a few months, about a year before Cobain's tragic death. Some are in person, and a few are over the phone. They're pleasantly informal and laid-back, since Cobain munches on a sandwich during one segment, and is occasionally interrupted by Courtney. Over the course of several interviews, Cobain reflects on his life before rock stardom -- his childhood and his hometown, his formative years of mischief, his love of punk rock, his desire to be a rock star, and the early days of Nirvana. Cobain also contemplated drugs, health problems, his allure to flies, his quirky art, Courtney Love, fatherhood, turtles, misanthropy, death, oregano, journalists (I guess Azerrad was an exception), his bandmates, being onstage, the future of rock'n'roll, and his own reputation. Since the interviews were taped with sound only, director AJ Schnack fills the screen with soundless, strangely ambient images from Seattle, Olympia and Aberdeen. Musicians, stores, logging machines, streets, forests, houses and faces pass by quietly -- as well as some weird cartoons. It feels a little like a nostalgic look through Cobain's own eyes. Cobain himself was a remarkable person who has been overshadowed by his own posthumous legend (even when he was alive). In these interviews, he sounds like an intelligent man sitting down to have a frank conversation with a friend -- he sounds relaxed, laid-back and mostly at peace with his life as it then was, particularly when talking about his child (he recounts how when he saw her in a sonagram, she was making the "hook 'em horns"). He has a lot of funny anecdotes, and a childlike fascination with the world that is truly endearing. But as the interviews go on, we start seeing the multifaceted, contradictory creature that Cobain was -- darkness/light, loathing/fascination with people, childlike/painfully mature, earnest/jaded, passionate/lazy, craving fame yet somewhat disgusted by it. It's obvious he had learned a lot from his past, since he spends a lot of time analyzing his own youthful mind and how people saw him ("I usually am enjoying myself; I'm hardly ever depressed anymore"). Near the end, he even comments that his own personal problems are not unusual or the worst, showing that he had grown up a lot -- when asked if his was a sad story, Cobain laughs and says, "No... not really, I mean... it's nothing that's amazing or new, that's for sure." And Cobain made some eerily prophetic statements as well -- he complains about rock'n'roll ("It's sad to think what the state of rock'n'roll will be in about twenty years from now...") and discusses death ("If I was gonna blow my head off with a gun, I may as well take the risk of dying from drugs"). "Kurt Cobain: About a Son" is a bittersweet experience -- it offers some truly beautiful insights into the mind of a true artist, but leaves you wishing he hadn't departed quite so soon.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
3.6 out of 5 stars (37 customer reviews) 47 of 51 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Kurt Cobain in His Own Words,
By Valerie J. Saturen - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Kurt Cobain:About A Son (DVD)
It is hard to find a single figure that looms larger in recent rock history than Kurt Cobain. It's harder still to come across an artist whose true nature was so obscured, even distorted, by his own legend. About a Son, based on interviews with Come as You Are author Michael Azzerad, offers a rare, sincere, and deeply moving glimpse into Cobain's private world. In the process, it reveals a side of the late musician often left out of sensationalized media portrayals of his life, drug use, and tragic end--he is perceptive, thoughtful, and quietly articulate, reflecting on his experiences with a candor unmatched in other interviews.What makes the film unusual among documentaries is director AJ Schnack's determination to stay out of the way and allow Cobain to tell his own story. Eschewing the typical documentary format in which the viewer's gaze is focused on the subject, About a Son creates the sense of looking out through Kurt's eyes, seeing the images he would have seen and hearing the music he listened to. There are no Nirvana songs--just the music that inspired and influenced Cobain--and the visuals are a montage of evocative images of Aberdeen, Olympia, and Seattle. Listening to Kurt's sleepy, gravelly narration (most of the interviews were conducted in the wee hours of the morning) against the backdrop of these images elicits the feeling of taking a long stroll and talking intimately with an old friend. As you stroll through Washington streets slicked with rain, passing floating bundles of Aberdeen timber, punk rock Olympia kids, and the city lights of Seattle, Kurt talks about his parents' divorce, his lifelong sense of isolation, the unexpected consequences of fame, and his unabashed devotion to his wife and daughter. He tells of a life clearly fraught with pain and depression, yet fueled with creative passion. The personality he reveals is one of contradictions: the desire for recognition vs. the desire for solitude; deep concern for humanity vs. revulsion toward humanity's darker side; a harsh reality vs. a longing for the simplicity of childhood. About a Son is as much a portrait of the Pacific Northwest as it is a rendering of Kurt Cobain. Alongside breathtaking cinematography, Cobain's narrative shows that many of these private contradictions were the product of a deep-seated ambivalence toward his environment. As a child, he was alternately comforted and stifled by small-town Aberdeen; as a budding artist, he was nurtured by Olympia's creativity, yet felt like an outsider; in his Seattle days, he helped place the city on the musical map while deriding media hype about the "grunge scene." As the lone figure of Cobain fades at the film's end, one cannot help but feel the loss of an extraordinary artist--and an extraordinary individual--as he vanishes from sight. 16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Finally a film about Nirvana that matters!,
By Eric Stiner "Eric" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Kurt Cobain:About A Son (DVD)
Until now I don't think I have ever seen a film or piece of journalism that has accurately conveyed Cobain's impact on the world and the worlds affect on him. For most of my teenage years I admired Cobain's punk rock disdain for the press and interviews. But it made him a very mysterious figure. Some how this film maker got Kurt to sit down and speak candidly for hours about his life as it pertains to Nirvana. The cinematography is awesome. You can almost feel his ghost haunting each frame as Kurt's voice narrates the story of Nirvana. This film is really moving. If you own one film about Nirvanas visual history it should be this one.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Are you a Martian?,
By E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Kurt Cobain:About A Son (DVD)
Unless someone magically comes across one lying in a box somewhere, we are never going to get a Kurt Cobain autobiography. The closest thing we'll get is "Kurt Cobain - About a Son," a documentary cobbled out of Michael Azerrad's interviews with the late rock'n'roll star -- and Cobain both explores his own past and strips away some of his legends.The interviews took place in the early nineties over the course of a few months, about a year before Cobain's tragic death. Some are in person, and a few are over the phone. They're pleasantly informal and laid-back, since Cobain munches on a sandwich during one segment, and is occasionally interrupted by Courtney. Over the course of several interviews, Cobain reflects on his life before rock stardom -- his childhood and his hometown, his formative years of mischief, his love of punk rock, his desire to be a rock star, and the early days of Nirvana. Cobain also contemplated drugs, health problems, his allure to flies, his quirky art, Courtney Love, fatherhood, turtles, misanthropy, death, oregano, journalists (I guess Azerrad was an exception), his bandmates, being onstage, the future of rock'n'roll, and his own reputation. Since the interviews were taped with sound only, director AJ Schnack fills the screen with soundless, strangely ambient images from Seattle, Olympia and Aberdeen. Musicians, stores, logging machines, streets, forests, houses and faces pass by quietly -- as well as some weird cartoons. It feels a little like a nostalgic look through Cobain's own eyes. Cobain himself was a remarkable person who has been overshadowed by his own posthumous legend (even when he was alive). In these interviews, he sounds like an intelligent man sitting down to have a frank conversation with a friend -- he sounds relaxed, laid-back and mostly at peace with his life as it then was, particularly when talking about his child (he recounts how when he saw her in a sonagram, she was making the "hook 'em horns"). He has a lot of funny anecdotes, and a childlike fascination with the world that is truly endearing. But as the interviews go on, we start seeing the multifaceted, contradictory creature that Cobain was -- darkness/light, loathing/fascination with people, childlike/painfully mature, earnest/jaded, passionate/lazy, craving fame yet somewhat disgusted by it. It's obvious he had learned a lot from his past, since he spends a lot of time analyzing his own youthful mind and how people saw him ("I usually am enjoying myself; I'm hardly ever depressed anymore"). Near the end, he even comments that his own personal problems are not unusual or the worst, showing that he had grown up a lot -- when asked if his was a sad story, Cobain laughs and says, "No... not really, I mean... it's nothing that's amazing or new, that's for sure." And Cobain made some eerily prophetic statements as well -- he complains about rock'n'roll ("It's sad to think what the state of rock'n'roll will be in about twenty years from now...") and discusses death ("If I was gonna blow my head off with a gun, I may as well take the risk of dying from drugs"). "Kurt Cobain: About a Son" is a bittersweet experience -- it offers some truly beautiful insights into the mind of a true artist, but leaves you wishing he hadn't departed quite so soon. |
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