BEFORE: I'm going to use "27: Gone Too Soon" as an excuse to skip from the 1970's to the 1990's, because that's what the "27 Club" curse apparently did. I'll get back to the 1970's and also the 1980's in a bit. I'll also get back to Amy Winehouse in a bit, but for now I'm going to follow the Kurt Cobain link to this documentary from 1998.
If I remember correctly, it played at the Sundance Festival the first year that I went there - but I didn't get to see it, or maybe I didn't even try. It seems, though, that it may not have screened there at all because of potential lawsuits, first because of uncleared music rights (that's death for any festival screening or release these days) and then Courtney Love was threatening to sue the Sundance Festival if they screened the film, for defamation of character. Of course, something like that only makes people want to see the film even MORE, to see what she might be trying to hide. I remember there was some scuttlebutt about the film suggesting that she was somehow responsible for Cobain's death, but I don't remember the exact details - so I guess I have to watch the film now to find out.
I don't give a crap about Nirvana's music, but the suggestion that Courtney MAY have killed Kurt is just intriguing enough for me to finally get around to watching this one. And though it's not on Netflix, it is on iTunes - and also, someone posted it on YouTube for free. Guess which way I'm watching it?
THE PLOT: A documentary on the life of Kurt Cobain and his relationship with Courtney Love.
AFTER: I don't know much about this filmmaker, Nick Broomfield, but I generally oppose a person so blatantly inserting themselves into their own documentaries. This guy might be British, but he comes from the Michael Moore school of "ambush" journalism - showing up at a business with no warning, starting to film without permission and then acting shocked - SHOCKED - when they're asked to turn the camera off. Everyone has rights, and those include NOT being filmed if they so choose, so being asked to stop filming and leave a place of business is a very reasonable request. Using that footage later to imply that anyone who requests to not be filmed has something to hide is a form of dirty pool.
Somehow I don't think that the Washington State Lottery office (a business that Cobain allegedly used to fire a pellet gun at when he was a teen, just because it was across the street) has anything to hide, unless Cobain was killed by lottery tickets somehow. So why not just go through the proper channels to speak to someone at that office, why show up with the camera already running? This is not a war zone, it's a small Seattle town, where most people are probably polite to each other, provided that you don't sneak into their business unannounced to film them.
This is documentary sin #1 here, and #2 is blatantly leading his interview subjects to get the answers he wants - in some cases asking the same question over and over, phrased slightly differently with more clues about the answer he wants to get. "But didn't Kurt have a fascination with death? What do you think that means? But couldn't it also have meant THIS?" At this point, most interview subjects might agree with anything, just to move the conversation along. The best documentary filmmakers are neither seen NOR heard - this is in fact the first time I've heard anything from a director in the whole chain so far, and I'm 19 films in.
When he's not ambushing people who haven't agreed yet to answer questions on camera, Broomfield is making excuses for everything he's doing, why a certain song can't be played, or why this person never gave him the photos that he asked for, or why he went back again to see Kurt's aunt again, because some of her answers from before weren't very clear. I half expected to hear something like, "I had this great chance to interview this guy who knew the details of Kurt's suicide, but my car had a flat tire and I couldn't find the spare..." Sure, and the dog ate your homework, too.
Again and again, we hear that "Courtney Love wouldn't allow us to play any of Kurt's music" or "We tried to get in touch with Courtney's people, but they never called us back." Dude, we get it, Courtney Love doesn't like you - can you blame her, if you're investigating every conspiracy theory that you can find? Instead he goes to interview Courtney's father about their relationship, a former stripper about Courtney's heroin use, and a large man named El Duce from a band that had a song called "Sex Slave", who claimed that Courtney offered him money to kill Kurt. What may have started out as a film about Kurt Cobain somehow became a film about Courtney Love once the director lost his original focus. I realize the two people were tied together, but it's another case of narrowing the search for information while also discounting any evidence that might not support the theory in question.
The director finally catches up with Courtney Love at an awards ceremony for the ACLU, and manages to ask her a few questions before she takes the stage to present an award, but fails to ask her how she can both support the ACLU while also trying to suppress his free speech in making the film. So then since he basically blew that interview opportunity, he takes the stage unannounced to point out the irony of the situation, but just because he views himself as the injured party in the transaction, that doesn't give him the right to interrupt an organization's annual awards.
There's just no way this director can be counted upon to make a fair film at that point - he's too focused on Courtney Love and playing the victim role, just to make her into a villain. Whether she really is or not, I can't say - it would take an unbiased person to try to figure that out - or perhaps information that doesn't come to the screen second- or third-hand.
Also starring Courtney Love (last seen in "Tapeheads"), Nick Broomfield, Mari Earle, Tracey Marander, Alice Wheeler, Hank Harrison, Rozz Rezabek, Amy Squier, Tom Grant, Dylan Carson, Al Bowman, Jack Briggs, El Duce, Victoria Mary Clarke, Pat Smear, Larry Flynt, with a cameo from Vincent Schiavelli (last seen in "The Great Gatsby")
RATING: 4 out of 10 car trips
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