grantss The life of Kurt Cobain, frontman for Nirvana and the voice of a generation. Shows his history and the forces that shaped him, and destroyed him.Great documentary, written and directed by Brett Morgen who also gave us Crossfire Hurricane (the Rolling Stones documentary) and The Kid Stays in the Picture (the Robert Evans story). Details well Kurt Cobain's life story, from birth to death, his motivations and demons. Insightful interviews with people who knew Cobain best. (Interestingly - no Dave Grohl interview). Most importantly the film goes to great lengths to show his genius and his self-destructive streak and how these two were a package deal. Morgen uses Cobain's own poetry, song lyrics and random writings plus animated imagery to show how dark and tortured his mind was. Maybe too great a length - much of the imagery just feels self-indulgent and serves as padding. It also ruins the flow of the film at times, as instead of moving to the next event or stage, you get bogged down with imagery reminding us of elements of Cobain's personality we already knew about.Quite emotional at times. Through use of footage from his childhood we see the innocence and life lost.

Dan1863Sickles I almost never believe the hype about movies like this. But this Kurt Cobain documentary really is as brilliant and innovative as everyone says that it is. I've never seen anything like it!The moment the story starts, it seems real and fresh. Hearing the Everly Brothers and seeing Cobain home movies of Aberdeen in the early Sixties captured a mood, a moment of promise. It seemed like a miracle was going to happen. And Kurt Cobain was that miracle. I loved the way the story began with such hope, and the way the notebooks and paintings Kurt Cobain compiled came to life. The energy and excitement that is entirely missing from Gus Van San't exercise in slumming necrophilia, LAST DAYS, was really crackling all around in the middle part of this movie. I could have done without some of the animated story sequences, though. Having a "generic" teenage Kurt bragging about hooking up with a mentally challenged girl, just seemed sort of heavy handed and obvious. This was a guy who would tell any lie just to make the world he came from seem even more disgusting than it really was. But the sequences where he's compiling lists of band names, lists of great punk rock tracks, and lists of "things the band needs to do" were not only illuminating, they were inspiring. The last half hour was pretty depressing. Whereas in the early scenes the Cobain family are frank, modest, and courageous, the people from Kurt's famous period are obviously covering their own behinds and revealing just what they want to reveal. The home movies of Kurt, Courtney, and the baby were touching, in a way, but on some level I think they were staged. (That'll cost me some helpful votes, but I just can't help saying what I feel! And this movie made me feel a lot of things.)This is certainly the best documentary I've ever seen about a rock star. There probably won't be many more, either.

jinxieclark The entire time I was watching this I just wanted to cry. I could not believe not even his daughter (who he adored, there are more pictures of Kurt and Frances than there are with Courtney and Frances, also, the expression on the face of Kurt while with Frances was lit up and beaming with pride, not the case with her mother). How could she allow this humiliation of her father who loved her more than anything on earth?? I felt it was a low down, dirty attempt to make the people who still love Kurt to this day, somehow not love him anymore because look 'he was a junkie' or he was not happy living with his 'wife' and wanted a divorce, so let's turn that into he was 'suicidal', instead of what it was, he wanted away from her and he wanted custody of his daughter. If you are at all a fan of Kurt you will steer clear of this humiliating, exploitation of Kurt. Courtney must be needing money or this was a sad attempt to dirty the minds of people who might watch Soaked In Bleach (the REAL documentary dealing with FACTS only) the one she sent letters to theaters threatening to sue if they showed it.

kosmasp Just the mere fact, that Cobain (and others) have filmed a lot of stuff (which is used without further comment and is there for the viewer to evaluate and examine and draw conclusions from), which is used in this documentary, make it really essential. Especially if you were a fan. But even if you weren't or just want to find out who this Cobain was, this is the place to start and find out.It's as conclusive as it gets. I don't think you can get more or better inside ones head, than it's shown here. There's of course foul language and themes that might not be suitable for children. But if you get intimate with a person (I shouldn't forget about the nudity on display here too), you're bound to see and hear things, that some might judge as unsafe for kids to watch.Very thorough, with many interviews and a lot of private time with a man, who seemed to feel doomed ...