Last Days (DVD)
Written and Directed by: Gus Van Sant
Starring: Michael Pitt, Lukas Haas, Asia Argento, Scott Green

There’s no doubt that director Gus Van Sant has tackled some interesting and challenging projects thus far in his career. Although he’s known for a few mainstream hits like “Good Will Hunting” and “Finding Forrester”, his background also includes such groundbreaking indie flicks as “Drugstore Cowboy” and “My Own Private Idaho”. This is also the same guy who, for the sake of an experiment, did a shot-for-shot remake of “Psycho”, much to the chagrin of many film critics.

“Last Days” continues along in the same direction that Van Sant’s last couple of movies have taken. In particular it shares many similar qualities with “Elephant”, which was a fictionalized account of a high school shooting based loosely on the events at Columbine. In “Last Days”, Van Sant was inspired to tell the story of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain in the final days before he killed himself. Once again he has taken a little bit of fact and a lot of his own speculation to create an unusual blend of truth and fiction. The level of authenticity that the movie manages to achieve, however, makes for quite a haunting and powerful film.

The main character in “Last Days” is actually a rock star named Blake (played by Michael Pitt), although he looks strikingly similar to Kurt Cobain. He is skinny and frequently slouches, although he is not emaciated quite to the point that Cobain probably would have been. His scruffy mop of dirty blonde hair is really what sells it, and with little in the way of close-ups, the illusion remains intact for majority of the film.

Pitt is believable and sufficiently pathetic in his portrayal of this strung out and mostly unintelligible junkie. The entire movie basically takes place in an old home surrounded by a large wooded area and river where Blake stumbles around in a haze, muttering to himself and trying to escape all the people in his life. There are some moments that come across as humourous, particularly Blake’s exchange with an unwitting Yellow Page salesman who stops by the house early on. But still it never becomes a parody of itself, we feel the isolation and loneliness underneath it all, and understand potentially how things have gotten this way.

I was also pleasantly surprised with the music in the movie. The songs played by Pitt during the film are fictional (ie. not real Kurt Cobain songs) although they sound dead on and lend weight to the movie’s emotional impact. One is an improvised noise jam, while the other is an acoustic song with anguished vocals that are almost eerie in their accuracy. I’m not sure exactly who should get the credit for the music, but Thurston Moore was the music supervisor for the film. (Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon also has an appearance in the movie as a record executive trying to talk Blake into rehab.)

With a movie about such an icon, you might wonder why Last Days isn’t more high profile than it is. The answer, I think, lies in Gus Van Sant’s continually non-mainstream approach. This movie is very slow, with sparse and muted dialogue. It’s more of a fly-on-the-wall perspective, just soaking up the vibe of Blake’s life. This movie isn’t for everyone. Scenes are sometimes spliced out of chronological order and replayed from different viewpoints, adding a bit of confusion and a dream-like quality to the events.

When you think about it, this movie could have been a complete disaster, and I think what Van Sant has managed to do with it is quite remarkable. On the one hand, it makes me wish we could see an official biopic of Kurt Cobain, but ironically, it would probably not be nearly as authentic as this fictional retelling of the story. Take it for what it is, I guess. If you’re a Nirvana fan you will probably appreciate this movie but I do think it’s a little slow for the average person. Either way, if you like Gus Van Sant’s work, you shouldn’t miss out on “Last Days”.

The DVD contains some behind the scenes featurettes, a music video (”Happy Song” by Pagoda) and a deleted scene. It’s also worth noting that the movie was shot in fullscreen, although the DVD contains a widescreen cut as well. — Sean

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