The music world was shaken in 1994 when the legendary Kurt Cobain committed suicide. Shortly thereafter, Gus van Sant began to make plans to make a film about it, but this was delayed until nearly a decade later, and the plot was changed so that the film was about a fading rock star similar to Cobain. Here the rock star is named Blake, played by Michael Pitt in one of his earliest roles. Pitt's portrayal of the rock star is superbly realistic; you see him and recognise him as one of those musical geniuses who has faded into obscurity after battles with drugs and a fall from stardom. Youve seen people like him before. But their lives, or perhaps more accurately their after-lives, their last days as they sink to the final depths, have never been portrayed with such stunning detail and believability as van Sant does here. Last Days will cast a poetic spell on some viewers and will seem mind-numbingly boring to others. How you'll greet a film with essentially no plot, depends upon your partiality toward experimental cinema and the self-indulgence of a heroin-addicted icon.
Jesse Gumbarge is editor and chief blogger at JarvisCity.com - He loves old-school horror films and starting pointless debates. You can reach out at: JesseGumbarge@JarvisCity.com
