Cobain probably rolling over in his grave because of ‘About a Son'
There's something sleazy about a documentary like "Kurt Cobain About a Son" that mates voice recordings of the too-soon-departed rock star made by Michael Azerrad in researching his book "Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana" with 90-plus minutes of random footage shot in northwest Washington by a couple of wannabe filmmakers.
It reminded me a bit of those old Reese's ads in which a clumsy chocolate lover accidentally collides with a klutzy peanut butter connoisseur, but with far less flavorable results.
While not quite a rip-off, "About a Son" is tantamount to recycling, or some might say, regifting, especially if you've read "Come as You Are." Although it's admittedly far more powerful hearing all those anecdotes spoken by Cobain himself.
But even that eventually wears thin, given the familiarity of Cobain's well-chronicled battles with heroin (used mainly, he says, to mask his intense stomach and back pain) and his fight to come to terms with the guilt and resentment he felt after being abandoned as a child by his father.
Not as thin, though, as all those haphazardly assembled clips of unidentified places and faces shot by director AJ Schnack and his cameraman Wyatt Troll in and around the three Washington cities -- Aberdeen, Olympia, Seattle -- Cobain called home in the 27 years preceding his suicide in 1994.
Only rarely do the images jibe with Cobain's words, recorded a year before his death. Mostly, they leave the viewer baffled by endless shots of lumber production lines (Cobain's father worked at such a mill) and smiling, waving rubes eager to get their mugs in front of Schnack and Troll's cameras.
They're here, no doubt, to fill the voids left by Schnack's failure to secure actual footage and photos of Cobain, his friends or bandmates. Only when the end credits roll do we finally see his face. Never, do we hear a note of his music.
It's frustrating, if not infuriating. Yet the sound of Cobain's soothing unaffected voice never fails to mesmerize. You're riveted by his every word, whether he's talking about a gay best friend from high school, his attraction to Courtney Love, his shot at fatherhood with his newborn Frances Bean, his disdain for "average" people, or his lifelong love of art.
Typical of his manic-depressive state, Cobain can be heard speaking in glowing optimism about the future one minute, and the next contemplating blowing his head off rather than dealing with his mental and physical anguish.
It's all quite haunting, and incredibly sad, because at the heart of it all, Cobain was a nice decent guy who despite his huge success was dealt a raw deal in life. It's even sadder to think that only in death did he receive the love and admiration he so desperately sought in life.
In many ways, he's very much a kindred spirit of Ian Curtis, the ill-fated leader of the iconic British band Joy Division. Both suffered from chronic ailments and depression. Both adored their baby daughters. Both hated the limelight. And both, unfortunately, came to the realization that death was their only way out.
They differ in that Hollywood did Curtis right with the fine biopic "Control," while Cobain has been rewarded with something he'd no doubt deplore: a slapdash documentary that's more about making money than creating art.
"Kurt Cobain About a Son": Not rated. A documentary by AJ Schnack featuring audio interviews with Kurt Cobain. 2 stars.
The Patriot Ledger