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Oh well, whatever, nevermind
Forget the Beatles. There's a whole generation that thinks you're old if you were a Nirvana fan. Gus Van Sant occasionally pulls it together to make a commercial (Good Will Hunting) or would-be commercial film (Psycho), but his heart appears to be in minimalist offerings that are slow and frustrating to watch. Sometimes (the brilliant Elephant) they go somewhere and sometimes (Gerry) they don't. Unfortunately, despite some rave reviews, Last Days falls in the latter category. It's Van Sant's "fictional meditation" on the death of Kurt Cobain (1967-1994), but even though they're both from the Pacific Northwest it was filmed in Garrison, New York. Van Sant was putting grunge on the screen before Cobain got out of high school, notably in his first feature, Mala Noche (released in 1985), about Portland's hustling scene. Last Days doesn't exactly encapsulate the grunge music scene. It doesn't exactly do anything but put images on the screen and let you fashion your own story around them. The danger of this connect-the-dots approach is most evident in a scene where the central character, Blake (Michael Pitt) is visited by an executive from his record label, played by Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth. She tries to persuade him to get help and talks to him about a daughter he has. Because her identity isn't established and because of her physical appearance one might assume she represents Courtney Love. Blake has an entourage living with him in his remote, rundown mansion. All are played by actors who use their own first names for their characters: Lukas (Haas), Asia (Argento), Scott (Green) and Nicole (Vicius). It's not clear whether any are members of Blake's band or just hangers-on. Lukas at least is established as a musician because he asks Blake for help with a song he's writing. Scott, thinking Blake needs to be alone, takes Lukas upstairs to have sex. Both men also have sex with women, though not on camera. This is starting to make Last Days sound like more of a coherent narrative than it is. In the opening sequence Blake is walking in the woods in his pajamas. The camera shoots him from so far away that he could be Kurt Cobain – or Sean Penn – or Cameron Diaz, for that matter. He undresses, swims in a spring, builds a campfire and wanders home the next morning. Much of the time Blake is alone. He changes from one dirty shirt to another or into a black negligee, pours cereal, cooks macaroni and cheese and plays with kittens, when he's not just sitting and staring into space. Sometimes his housemates shield him from intruders: a private detective (Ricky Jay) hired by someone concerned about him; two Mormon missionaries (Adam Friberg and Andy Friberg). Sometimes Blake lets someone in: the record executive, a Yellow Pages salesman (Thadeus A. Thomas). Sometimes Blake ignores the phone, sometimes he answers it to hear a manager implore him to show up for an 86-day tour that's been booked. Sometimes there's music in the house: Velvet Underground on the turntable, Boyz II Men on MTV. In one scene, Blake plays an impromptu jam by himself as the camera starts outside his window and gradually pulls back to a distance of about 30 feet before remaining stationary for the rest of the song. You won't see this as a music video. Blake sings a solo, "Death to Birth," written by Pitt, later in the film. Like most of his limited dialogue the lyrics are mumbled, mostly unintelligible. Pitt makes the early Brando a master of diction by comparison. Blake plays with an unloaded shotgun early on. This may be intended as a foreshadowing of his death, but that's an event we're spared or cheated out of, depending on your point of view. There's a moment after his death that I found sweet, but that's probably as debatable as everything else about Last Days. You have to admire Van Sant's courage in using long, static takes that would frighten most American filmmakers, but what he shows in this case won't be enough to satisfy those inquiring minds that have a morbid fascination with dead celebrities. Steve Warren is a local actor and film reviewer. His reviews can also be seen weekly in the Sunday Paper. |
Last Days
Directed by: Gus Van Sant 
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