Movie Muser

Perhaps the most alarming image in this harrowing documentary on Kurt Cobain is in the opening pre-credit sequence. We see a woman who looks like his mum – it is – then a younger women who looks like his sister – it is. Then there’s a bald, podgy chap with a beard covering his jowls, talking wih some insight into Cobain’s life, but who is he? Then it hits you, it’s fellow band member Krist Novoselic, now middle aged and wearing a bad shirt. Is that what Cobain would look like now? Like many a rock star Cobain will forever be 27, slim and good looking.

Brett Morgen’s rockumentary works very hard to avoid the usual rock clichés, and in the main it works. What we get is an intimate look at Cobain’s early life, which is disturbing and certainly explains a lot about what was to come. He was basically abandoned by his mother and father, and went to live with aunts and grandparents, none of whom wanted the increasingly troubled boy. The most telling moment is when his stepmother is telling the camera what a bad, naughty boy he was, and his father sits there, silent and motionless.

Morgen uses Cobain’s readings from diaries, which he animates, telling of a friendless school period and a fumbled losing of his virginity. He also got into drugs pretty early in life as a means of escaping his pain. The director also animated Cobain’s drawings and cartoons, which at the age of two were astonishingy accomplished, he could draw a perfect Snoopy or Frankenstein and continued to draw and paint through his life.

There is also a lovely interview with a first serious girlfriend, someone I was unaware of and who had some insights into this shy, tortured boy. His letters to her, and his scribblings in a diary or hastily-written lyrics or poems, reveal an exceptionally clever mind but clearly tortured and on the brink of a mental breakdown. His words are sometimes too heartbreaking.

We then race through his Nirvana years, which geeky fans may find unsatisfying. There is a very brief mention of his musical influences, no explanation of how the band was formed, and straight into the maelstrom of becoming the biggest band in the world. What hardcore fans will enjoy though is the treatment of the music. Instead of getting the greatest hits we get live and demo versions of songs, which then morph into powerful studio versions – try and see it with a decent sound system if you can. For the inevitable Smells Like Teen Spirit we get the video but a choral, orchestrated version of the song. Arguably the best musical moment is when Cobain introduces Molly’s Kiss; “this song has two notes – yep, two notes” he growls before launching into the song’s fantastic riff – which does indeed feature all of two chords.

There are two elephants in the room here, namely Dave Grohl and Courtney Love. Despite getting second billing Grohl is seen only in MTV interviews, revealing nothing, and doesn’t do the sit-down interview that Novoselic seems happy to do. We now know Grohl as the head man of Foo Fighters, a force of nature who is always engaging and chatty except on the subject of Nirvana. Maybe he still feels it’s too raw?

Bassist Novoselic is good value too, rather sadly looking back at his friendship with Cobain. Love meanwhile is listed as a producer, which may explain why there is so much footage of her and him nursing their baby towards the end of the film. It’s tiresome and does nothing to persuade you that she is anything else but a car crash. An interview question about Cobain becomes all about her in the blink of an eye, tellingly, and she is clearly out of it in several sequences.

What Morgen’s film ultimately does is remind you just how amazing and authentic Nirvana actually were, and how short-lived. Their final record, an MTV unplugged, was admirable but not a fitting finale to one of the most original bands of their era. But maybe his mum was right – when she heard his first record she cried, not through happiness but because she knew he was not ready for what was to come. Smart woman.

Overall verdict: unusual, revealing documentary which fills in a lot of gaps for fans of Nirvana but leaves plenty of questions still unanswered. Worth seeing just to revel in that raw, emotional music one more time.

Reviewer: Mike Martin