Kurt Cobain: About a Son

2007 "Kurt Cobain in his own words."
7.2| 1h36m| en
Details

An intimate and moving meditation on the late musician and artist Kurt Cobain, based on more than 25 hours of previously unheard audiotaped interviews conducted with Cobain by noted music journalist Michael Azerrad for his book "Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana." In the film, Kurt Cobain recounts his own life - from his childhood and adolescence to his days of musical discovery and later dealings with explosive fame - and offers often piercing insights into his life, music, and times. The conversations heard in the film have never before been made public and they reveal a highly personal portrait of an artist much discussed but not particularly well understood. Written by AJ Schnack

Director

Producted By

Sidetrack Films

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Reviews

ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.
Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.
Tayyab Torres Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.
Jakoba True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.
KineticSeoul This is actually a pretty touchy and immersive tape interview with Kurt Cobain. From where he comes from, what he dealt with while growing up, where his passion for music started. His involvement with his bandmates and how they got to where they got while dealing with personal issues. And his inner demons and what he is passionate about and etc. It's a fascinating and yet sad coverage of Kurt Cobain from his interviews. I just think instead of random pictures and video clips, it could have had animation and digital animation with Kurt Cobain. If your a fan of Nirvana or Kurt Cobain, this film is worth checking out. Just about everything when it comes to the interviews has been edited almost perfectly in a congruent manner. The main gripe I have about this movie, is that you will probably be better off listening to a CD of this instead of watching a movie of the interview.6/10
jcjh20 I thought this was an excellent little piece, and this is some of the most honest portrayal of Kurt Cobain you'll ever hear on audio tapes of actual interviews conducted a year before his death. This is not your average documentary and you will not see any clips of Nirvana or really even any pictures or footage of Kurt at all except for a grand total of maybe 2 minutes of short footage of some photographs taken from a few live performances and a few photo shoots. Besides that it is nothing but locations relevant to his life in Washington, mainly Aberdeen, Olympia and Seattle, the main places he's lived in in the 3 main periods of his life.I found this utterly fascinating and personally I loved the footage of city streets, random everyday people from those cities that Kurt spent his life in, gorgeous views of vistas, cityscapes and other such eye candy to free your mind and let Kurt do all the talking. It never once gets boring despite a great deal of the footage being nothing interesting at all, some parts showing a part of Washington state that is dull, lifeless and depressing, but ultimately it all shows insight into why Kurt became the person he became and gives you images to go with the subjects Kurt is speaking of. I really cannot agree with the negative reviews of this film and I loved it. I am a huge Nirvana fan and I find Kurt Cobain utterly fascinating granted, but I am not a biased fan at all. This is a very very honest portrayal of Kurt Cobain. You might not even like him much when the movie is over. He can be quite depressing and a tragic figure to listen to, but one thing is for sure, he always had something interesting to say and never sugarcoated anything and always spoke from the heart. This is a true look at the real Kurt Cobain in his own words and for that, I commend it highly. My only complaint is that I wish it could have been a bit longer and I wish that there could have been a more complete in-depth analysis of his life as a lot of things were skipped over.
origin20 For a filmmaker who touts craft so much, he lacks it completely. He is great at self-promoting his film, but it is entirely empty. I have to agree with other commentaries on this film... it is wonderful to have the audio tapes of Cobain, but the film it a thin wrapping around this content. I wish Schnack would spend more time focusing upon his film-making than complaining about the state of documentary. One has to ask if it were not Cobain would this film get any notice. The answer is no. I found the camera work overwrought and trying. There is little to be said of the editing. As with too many docs, it could do with some aggressive trimming and could lose 1/3 of the film without any loss to the story.
M W As kids pre Nevermind even Bleach my friends & I listened to a lot of demos & tapes from Seattle. The list of bands are numerous mostly The Melvins Green River & Soundgarden. We considered Nirvana the runts of the litter and didn't think they would ever make it beyond demos. At the time the word grunge wasn't something we used to describe this kind of metal rock crap we were listening to It was just druggie and hard sounding which fit our lifestyles more than Winger or Poison or even Metallica or Slayer. So when it all exploded it was very surreal kind of like being in a dark room that was suddenly flooded with light & crowded with people. Seattles little secret was no more. So that fact then was hard to digest for me & now some 16 years later as Van Sant & this doc further explore & dig into Cobains life I just think to myself Jesus he wasn't that interesting at all. Why are we still talking about this man as if he were this enigmatic figure who changed the world? Im not going to attack the man but heres where my head is at he left his daughter to be raised by Courtney Love. This is a large part of what makes this country so sick. Your worshiping a dead junkie not some anti-hero who died for his beliefs. This isn't about art or fashion & im not trying to be an a-hole but every time I see this woman benefit from this mans death or see another book another CD another movie I get very very sick to my stomach. Its disgusting & more importantly trivial. You want someone to look up to just take a look in the mirror.