Kurt Cobain: About a Son

I just saw this at the Toronto Film Festival and I wasn't impressed.

While I appreciate the audio interviews captured within this film, I question why a movie was made. I would have enjoyed the film as much if listened to on the way home while I was in traffic. It should have been a CD release, not a film.

The film revolves around some audio recordings that were compiled from a series of late night interviews. There were very intimate details described by Cobain, including how he did care about what people thought about him (as opposed to what most of his friends suggested), and that he wanted to write some pop songs for their albums, but Sub Pop forced them into keeping the albums underground. Some may already be aware of these facts, but I enjoyed learning of them for the first time. The tone in which Cobain spoke felt genuine, and the pacing of the interviews was perfect. These interviews deserve to be heard by any fan of Cobain's, or Nirvana. They were a great listen.

The problem with this film is there isn't a single video clip or photo of Cobain, his family, or Nirvana until the last 30 seconds of the movie. The entire film involves a series of related images that play based on the interviews. An example would be when speaking on his father's job, they show footage of men working at a lumber yard. When Cobain spoke on Seattle, they'd show images of Seattle Record stores, streets and highways. They even had real time images being drawn in the form of artsy cartoons (tree's and grass swaying) during some of the vocals. It was like watching on LONG Fruitopia commercial combined with a film strip about Washington. Unfortunately it also seemed like they had problems clearing for use in this movie.

I understand what the director attempted with the images, but it failed in my eyes. It's almost like they brainstormed how they could generate the most revenue from the interviews, as opposed to having a vision upon hearing them. It feels forced, and I don't need to see this again. Literally. If I ever end up with a copy of the DVD I'll either record the audio to CD, or listen to it with the TV off.

I thought this was an excellent little piece, and this is some of the most honest portrayal of Kurt Cobain you'll ever hear on audio tapes of actual interviews conducted a year before his death. This is not your average documentary and you will not see any clips of Nirvana or really even any pictures or footage of Kurt at all except for a grand total of maybe 2 minutes of short footage of some photographs taken from a few live performances and a few photo shoots. Besides that it is nothing but locations relevant to his life in Washington, mainly Aberdeen, Olympia and Seattle, the main places he's lived in in the 3 main periods of his life.

I found this utterly fascinating and personally I loved the footage of city streets, random everyday people from those cities that Kurt spent his life in, gorgeous views of vistas, cityscapes and other such eye candy to free your mind and let Kurt do all the talking. It never once gets boring despite a great deal of the footage being nothing interesting at all, some parts showing a part of Washington state that is dull, lifeless and depressing, but ultimately it all shows insight into why Kurt became the person he became and gives you images to go with the subjects Kurt is speaking of. I really cannot agree with the negative reviews of this film and I loved it. I am a huge Nirvana fan and I find Kurt Cobain utterly fascinating granted, but I am not a biased fan at all. This is a very very honest portrayal of Kurt Cobain. You might not even like him much when the movie is over. He can be quite depressing and a tragic figure to listen to, but one thing is for sure, he always had something interesting to say and never sugarcoated anything and always spoke from the heart. This is a true look at the real Kurt Cobain in his own words and for that, I commend it highly. My only complaint is that I wish it could have been a bit longer and I wish that there could have been a more complete in-depth analysis of his life as a lot of things were skipped over.

This is the official story. I don't think many people realise that that a lot of the stuff written about Kurt and Nirvana was either sensationalised, or just completely made up. This story though is one of the very few true stories. It is based on Michael Azerrad's book, "Come As You Are", which was official and was made with the help of the band, and their friend's and families.

This movie is made WITH the actual discussions of Kurt with Michael. So the entire movie is basically just Kurt talking, and the movie makers then just added pictures to what Kurt was talking about.

Sometimes it's a photograph or a painting, but a lot of the time it is actual footage of the people and places in this story, and it makes it so much easier to visualise what Kurt is talking about, when it presented so well for you like that.

If you have read the book, this is like a watered down version of that, but it is still worth a watch because you are hearing it from Kurt himself, and you are hearing the quotes in their original form. For the book, some of the quotes were taken apart and put in different stages in the story to make it fit together properly. So here it is in it's raw form which is interesting. And there are a few things that didn't make the book.

I really liked the visual aspect though. Some said it should have just been an audio CD, well I completely disagree, (as do other people). The pictures visualise everything for you, so you get the full emotional experience. Your mind doesn't have to wander around, trying to think about what Kurt is saying. The pictures are already here for you, so it gives you time to think about what Kurt is actually saying. It also shows you a lot of things that are in the story. The actual places Kurt lived and hung out etc. Hearing him talking and seeing the footage of this stuff just seemed to fit together perfectly, and it surprises me that some people didn't appreciate that.

Seeing Olympia, Aberdeen, and Montesano etc.. it helps show the story that is being told.

Basically this gets two thumbs up from me. It's a must watch for a Nirvana / Kurt fan, and probably an interesting watch for people who aren't even fans.

My only notes to you would be that it is pretty sad, and also it a VERY thinned out version of what you get from the book, so if you want more, you really should get the book too.

Cinematic Documentary has blossomed the last 10 years as more and more artists find reality interesting enough to make them stay away from "creating a world of their own", a.k.a. fiction. It was matter of time before the musical documentary would take the lead on this new interest in this genre of film-making -just like on TV before.

In those last years countless films have been released on anything that has to do with music -any kind of music. The most interesting of them weren't those about my (or your) favorite artists, but rather the ones that had a real cinematic approach on the way each was presenting the story. Moreover, the best of them were/are those that could be something more than just a "fairy-tale of drugs and self-destruction" or a "scientific musical analysis".

"About a Son" manages to pass this "test". Interested or not in Kurt Cobain, you cant ignore its cinematography; and that alone will be enough for you to sit and watch the film. But beyond this, the structure of the movie and director's subtle comments on Cobain's words are what make this a great documentary.

This is as close and personal you'll ever get to Kurt Cobain on film. Don't miss it.

I attended a screening of -Kurt Cobain, About A Son at the Seattle International Film Festival. As you can expect with a hometown audience, the audience was ready to fall in love with this film going in. For the most part, the film did not disappoint. The most powerful aspect of the film is the fact that we hear Kurt Cobain's voice speaking his own words, a far better idea than the standard documentary format that features "experts" and fans talking about what made a person great. In the interviews, Cobain is happy, depressed, funny, bitter, excited, exhausted, gracious, resentful, kind, sarcastic ... but always engaging and interesting. It was also powerful to see the images of the towns in which Cobain lived -- Aberdeen, Olympia, and Seattle -- as he talked about different phases of his life. I agree with an earlier poster's comment that saving actual images of Cobain and Nirvana until the end really worked. After all, it is Cobain's voice that is his greatest legacy, and by filling our eyes with images of industrial workers, train trestles, run-down houses, liquor stores, street corners, and so on, the film reminds the viewer that Cobain was a man, first and foremost, and an icon later. And the soundtrack is AWESOME! Kurt talks a great deal about bands that influenced him as he grew up and started writing songs, and many of these artists were kind enough to grant permission to the film-makers to use their music for free. I hope that a soundtrack album is released at some point. My only complaint was the film-makers' choice to include images of places, buildings, and scenes (especially in Seattle) that were not around when Cobain was alive. How much did the Mariners' baseball stadium (which opened in 1999) "shape" the person who became Kurt Cobain, and I somehow doubt that Cobain spent any time at Starbucks. Nevertheless, I highly recommend the film to anyone who loves Nirvana or is fascinated by the man.