KURT COBAIN: MONTAGE OF HECK (Brett Morgen, U.S.). 132 minutes. Rating: NNNN
Kurt Cobain, it turns out, was a list-maker. To-do lists, potential band names and myriad organizational scribbles filled his notebooks, to which director Brett Morgan had access for the making of this family-approved documentary about the troubled grunge star.
The exclusive access also results in stunning amounts of archival footage: of his halcyon childhood in Aberdeen, Washington, early Nirvana rehearsals and his and Courtney Love‘s druggy domestic antics at the height of Nirvana’s superstardom – which grow horrifying once Frances Bean Cobain, who co-executive-produced the film, is born.
Animation fills in the blanks, as do interviews with a solemn Krist Novoselic, a loud, chain-smoking Love and Cobain’s fawning mother. (High fives for excluding the ubiquitous Dave Grohl as a talking head.)
It all adds up to a multi-dimensional look at Cobain – the genius, the loser, the magnetic rock star (even to his bandmates) – that will reawaken your inner teenage punk.