Movie: Last Days

[One_tree_hill]

Last Days, Gus van Sant's last film of his so called "death trilogy" is a highly experimental piece of work that will divide viewers even more than his previous film, Elephant.

The first film of the trilogy, Gerry, looked at death by isolation, dying of thirst. Elephant looked at death at the hands of someone else, and now with Last Days van Sant tackles death by one's own hand.

The film is a fictional interpretation of the last days of Kurt Cobain, here renamed Blake (also a character in Van Sant's novel Pink), played by Michael Pitt. Why the character has been renamed and is not actually Kurt (despite the obvious physical resemblance) has many reasons, the most important being that no one knows exactly what happened to Kurt or what he was feeling before he died, so to say that this is an exact replica of Kurt Cobain's last days wouldn't be right. Another reason is that van Sant is not just exploring the drug-addled existence of Kurt Cobain but also River Phoenix and many others who have died young and lived the "rock and roll lifestyle".

Again, Last Days has been shot in the documentary-like style of Elephant and Gerry, long interrupted scenes and shots with very little dialogue. The film starts with Blake wandering through the woods near his mansion, mumbling to himself. He then reaches a waterfall, strips down to his underwear and swims. The next scene involves him drying his clothes beside a wood fire while mumbling "home on the range".

The rest of the film follows this framework of slow connected moments: Blake makes macaroni and cheese; Blake plays music in his den; Blake walks around some more. But what makes these scenes genuinely affecting and not just self indulgently boring is the camera movement—slow, haunting and hypnotic—and the use of an experimental ambient soundtrack (which includes church bells, dogs barking and planes taking off) which help the viewer see into the depressed, jumbled up mind of a fucked up rock star close to implosion.

Mid-way through the film we are introduced to Blake's hangers on, played by Lukas Hass, Asia Argento and two others, people who live at his mansion and eat his food and play his instruments and borrow money from him. Throughout the film Blake tries (sometimes in vain) to avoid these people, and they are shown to be selfish and only out for what they can get from him (Luke wants Blake to help him write songs, Seth wants Blake to pay for his plane ticket before reaching into his pocket and stealing his cigarettes without even an apology). Most other people in the film only want Blake for what they can get too, private investigators just want to get paid, yellow pages salesmen just want him to renew his ad, his band call up and they just want him back on tour. The only character that wants to really help Blake is an unnamed character (possibly his mother) played by Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth, who tries to get him to leave with her, asking if he's phoned his daughter and apologised for being "a rock and roll cliché". He doesn't leave with her, but following this scene we see Blake in what is obviously his daughter's room, playing with a kitten and going to sleep on her bed, showing how isolated he feels from real love and warmth.

The film ends with Blake's suicide, which we don't see, and a recreation of the famous photo of Kurt Cobain's lying corpse, one shoe off, head being blocked by a police photographer.

Overall, I wasn't as affected by this as I was Elephant, but it was a remarkable film by any standards and should be applauded for its experimentation with photography as well as sound design and realism of the performances.

There are a few criticisms: a couple of shots are held slightly too long (a Boyz II Men video is shown for well over a minute playing on a television) and there is a pointless gay scene, just like in Elephant, which could be interpreted as the men not giving a fuck about what they do in Blake's house, but it just felt a little jarring, it comes out of nowhere. But if you liked Elephant, you will probably like Last Days despite its flaws, and the ending, at least for me and I think for any Nirvana fan, packs a punch.


Last Days is out now on general release. Rated 15.

http://www.lastdaysmovie.com/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0403217/

[Jenpot]

I can't believe someone got to this before Geoff.

Loved it, but then again I loved Elephant + Gerry. I think this is DEFINATELY his best of the three so far to be honest.

I particuarly loved the scene where Blake sings the Pagoda song, tingles galore right here.

[Nigel Tufnel]

I'll watch it but i think that review pretty much told me more than i wanted to know about it, more like a synopsis IMHO.

[One_tree_hill]

i have no fucking idea what IMHO means. Yeah, the review is bawz, I fucked up, fuck it.


Henry Chinaski

[Ellisande]

Now that I've read this review, I see the film in a totally different light... I didnt have the pleasure of reading a review on it before I seen it, and its perhaps this reason that I made the mistake of walking in to see Last Days expecting a digestable, obviously storytold film, with an easy to follow plot... I will freely admit that on many occasions I found myself looking around the cinema trying to find something interesting to look at, whilst Boys 11 men droned on in the back ground, or men had random sex... or even as Blakes buddys tried to hump each other in the living room, as the other sung away...
But maybe I was being too harsh... the only way i'd really be able to tell is by seeing it again... and I dont really know if i'd want to risk really not getting into the film all over again. If you are a lover of this film, please don't see this as an attack on it, merely as my own personal opinion on it.

[Nigel Tufnel]

i have no fucking idea what IMHO means.

In My Humble Opinion. Sorry, i hate netspeak but sometimes find myself using it at silly hours of the morning.

Yeah, the review is bawz, I fucked up, fuck it.

The review isn't bawz, just slightly too much plot disclosure. I will still be watching the film because what takes 90 seconds to read usually doesn't fill 90 minutes of film (unless its an Aphex Twin video ).

I generally liked the review because it includes more than just one theme of the film and actually made me curious about the 'hangers on'. Only constructive styled comment i could make would be "make the reader want to watch the story, don't tell them it.".