posted 01/31/2006 (Tue) @ 10:37 am
>>> Movie Reviews, Movies
Last Days (2005)
Terrible beyond words
- Released May 13, 2005
- Written and directed by Gus Van Sant
- Starring Michael Pitt, Lukas Haas, Asia Argento, Kim Gordon
It honestly baffles me the sheer number of folks who see artistic merit in creating a film based on the concept of following someone walking around in agonizingly pointless near-silence. This is the second film of this nature from director Gus Van Sant (”Elephant”), who seems to disagree with me wholeheartedly in spirit.
It’s definitely a thought-provoking film, but not in the sense that was intended; I thought a lot about what should be on the sandwich I made while Blake wandered around in the woods mumbling for the fourth time.
The way I figure, “Last Days” should be a difficult meal to digest for most people, but then again, shit is always hard to stomach. It runs right through you in near-silence, and after it comes out of the DVD player, you’ll feel much, much better.
Though based on the life of Kurt Cobain, lead singer of the rock band Nirvana who committed suicide in April 1994, “Last Days” actually more expertly mirrors in tone and style what I would imagine to be the life of a career college film student. Unfortunately for the rest of us, such people don’t commit suicide a la Blake (Michael Pitt), the main character here, as often as desired, and instead blather on about their hatred of popular culture and entertainment.
The anesthetized feel of “Last Days” (and to wit, of “Elephant”) is supposedly intended to evince some sort of intangible feeling such as “depression” or “isolation” on-screen. And there’s a possibility that on some level, the film succeeds in this, but I wouldn’t know. I grew increasingly more irritated at the film’s lack of action, plot, and even sound, at times. Where it claims to be a selfless portrait, “Last Days” is one of the most selfish films ever made, with only marginally more movement than that found in your typical portrait.
Lacking any reason to care about the plight of the characters is bad filmmaking no matter what class you take on the subject. I don’t care that Blake is depressed. What I care is WHY, which requires some level of skill, conspicuously absent here, to write and direct.
Here, direction, cinematography and writing are an afterthought. In an ironic twist, one of the most important details in shooting “Last Days” was probably casting someone who LOOKED enough like Kurt Cobain from behind.
In the end, it makes a certain impeccable sense to me that the sort of person who would find “Last Days” riveting has never owned a Nirvana album, let alone heard or read something written by Kurt Cobain. But whether you’re a Nirvana fan or not, watching this movie should be about as entertaining as listening to paint dry… which some find riveting, I’m sure. (Though paint might be too mainstream, since so many people enjoy it.)
Tags: bad, biopic, kurt cobain, nirvana
