Review of Last Days

Introduction

`Nirvana` were possibly the most important band to hail from the USA ever! The change that they inspired in the industry went beyond gunning down the big-haired rockers, and extended to a return to the whole punk ethos. When front man Kurt Cobain shot himself in April of 1994, he joined the likes of Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Robert Johnson, Jim Morrison and Brian Jones in the `twenty-seven club` of rock stars who died at that particular age. `Last Days` is Gus Van Sant`s homage to the final hours of Cobain whose suicide has been doused in controversy ever since that fateful day twelve years ago.

Lets get one thing straight though guys, this ISNT a biopic. As the disclaimer states, it is merely inspired by the last days of Mr Nirvana, and is not intended as an actual representation of what happened. Yeah, right! Featured tortured rock star `Blake` (Michael Pitt) even wears the same `Dennis the Menace`-style red `n` black striped jumper that Kurt famously wore, whereas Lucas Haas is the most obvious Dave Grohl wannabe since the Foo Fighters recruited Taylor Hawkins on drums. Remember though, it`s not a biopic!

For ninety minutes, `Last Days` follows Cobain, sorry, Blake around his grotty rock star mansion whilst he falls over, plays a guitar badly and mutters inanely to himself. Also starring is Sonic Youth`s Kim Gordon, just to add a hint of early 90s noise-rock to proceedings. However, anyone who hoped for a scripted foray into the uber-grungester mindset is going to be severely disappointed, as will those who expected to be partly entertained.

Van Sant`s pedigree includes the fantastic `Good Will Hunting`, and the politically charged `Elephant`, and so you assume that the lack of direction or filling-plot (before the inevitable suicide) means that this was something of a `summer project` for him. Surely this can`t be a real attempt at a film, can it?

Video

Distance shots, dreary indoor settings, and scenes where the main character is off screen (supposedly to `increase the feeling of tension`) make this one of the hardest films to get excited about since the invention of the zoetrope in 1834. The rainy and lush outside scenes are well cinematographed, but there are too many bad points for this aspect to turn it around.

Tech wise, the picture quality is fine in 4:3, although maybe widescreen would have added a certain unknown quality that seems to be absent.

Audio

The Dolby 3.1 sounds bearable, but the soundtrack is just appalling. All we really get is Pitt`s sound collage of him setting off delays/effects etc, whilst bashing some drums about, and an acoustic lament so tedious that you know exactly why he ends up killing himself.

If the Velvet Underground are your bag, then you might like to know that `Venus in Furs` features. If they`re not, then you`ll hate the movie even more

Features

The bonus material reads: `Making of`, Trailer, `Happy Song` music video, `The Long Dolly Shot: On the set of Last Days`, a deleted scene, and an interview with Michael Pitt.

It took me a long time to force myself into watching the extras that are featured on this DVD. Imagine you`re locked in a haunted house for 30 days, with no food or water and, as if by some sort of miracle, someone comes and lets you out. What you DON`T do, is run back in there for another week or so, but that`s exactly what watching the bonus material on this disc feels like - another excruciatingly painful experience.

The `Happy Song` music video is the only necessary item for completeness, as it shows what Blake`s band were supposed to have sounded like, which is unsurprisingly like Nirvana. The other extras, including the `Making of`, are almost all unwatchable and pointless, with `The Long Dolly Shot` being about building a track for the camera to roll back on for, literally, one shot.

The deleted scene is merely an overhead perspective on the aforementioned sound collage part of the movie, and is worth watching only if you have some interest in how to make a racket with guitar effects-pedals and a microphone.

Conclusion

I`ll pull no punches with this one, `Last Days` is one of the worst films ever made. Not words that any reviewer should use lightly, and I realise that I`m going to have to strongly justify this one, but there can be no other summary of a movie that simultaneously rips off both its subject and its audience to the point at which only a director`s apology will suffice.

Aimlessly following Blake stumble and fall over for an hour and a half, `Last Days` arrives at no conclusions, gives us no great performances and tries our patience to the very max. When 75 seconds of a `Boys 2 Men` music video feature on screen, you have a fair idea that the director is just looking for things to fill up time. Hence the projected scenes with nothing in, hence the other characters singing along to Lou Reed`s voice, hence the impossibly boring exchange of dialogue that could never mean anything, and never lead to any resolution.

When Blake`s body is found on the floor of his summerhouse, and his naked soul climbs out of his corpse, and then up and out of shot, the viewer is himself freed. Freed of the chore of having watched this movie, and freed of ever having to again. As an exercise in cleansing the mind and enduring torture, to come out the other side a wiser person, the movie gets 10/10. As a DVD and a piece of art to be (theoretically) enjoyed, `Last Days` sinks to new lows that, as a slightly naïve person, I never knew existed.