I've been an admirer of Brett Morgen's work for a while, and throughout his films (Kid Stays in the Picture, Chicago 10, 06/17/94), he's constantly displayed a great gift for how to do montages and to expand the form of the documentary, whether it's through voice-over that is (and isn't) right out of a book with corresponding imagery for Robert Evans, or with rotoscoped animation for the trial of the Chicago 7 in the late 60's. So it is logical that if he'd take on a documentary on Kurt Cobain it would be in montage form. The question is is it any good? That of course will depend on how attached you might be to the Cobain "mythos" that has sprouted since (or even before) his death.
I didn't have that kind of attachment - I love the band and like his work as a lyricist and musician, but it stops there - so went in to this fairly fresh and only knowing scattered facts about Cobain (all of them petty and none of them really mentioned here). What made the movie work for me is that Morgen sets up empathy with his subject and the audience very quickly, and it's thanks to a treasure trove of archive material. This director had access to so much 8mm home movie footage, hand-held camcorder video from the early 90's, old Nirvana band tapes, audio cassette recordings that Kurt made as a teenager, even a couple of voicemail messages and conversations (if the movie doesn't make you want to check out Over the Edge, it's doing something wrong).
But most of all are the journal entries, which is where much of the real meat of Morgen's film comes through. You get a complete purview into who Cobain was, from youth up until just near the end, with these journals and they're full of so many words but also drawings - Cobain was an incredible drawer and artist, and maybe in another life could've been a comic book guy with the sensibility of a more deranged Mike Judge or something - so Morgen uses these to his advantage and leaps off from creating animations from these drawings into animations based on Kurt's words. Possibly the highlight of the first half of the movie comes with Cobain's story of being disaffected, smoking pot, and trying to have his first sexual experience with a messed up fat girl, and it's startling to see how these images unfold.
But unlike Chicago 10, the movie's not anchored in this style. Morgen is all over the place at times with his montages, going from behind the scenes footage of music videos to Kurt and Courtney's own home movies. The latter becomes borderline invasive in some way, not too far removed from watching the Tommy Lee/Pamela video from years back, minus the sex (though Courtney Love cant help but show some boob). Perhaps it is necessary to see just what their relationship was like without any media bias; this part is also brought forward with articles that I found fascinating for what could very well have been totally true... or a bunch of BS, and probably the truth was in the middle. They were junkies, they were in love, and the degree to how much they were using colors perceptions for people.
Oh, and the movie is with wall-to-wall Nirvana music, from very deep, obscure, super-early-career cuts from punk shows to Kurt recording the Beatles 'And I Love Her' on a little cassette. Morgen has a natural ability to combine images with rapid succession, but I never really felt lost so long as I was paying attention to what was going on on screen. I saw it on HBO, but now regret I didn't get the full visual-aural experience in a theater, since it seems made for that kind of maximum impact.
I don't even think Montage of Heck gives a 100% clear view of things that happened for Nirvana or in all of Cobain's life, and yet that's kind of fine - it has enough time to go through the major accomplishments, but it doesn't matter the how completely except that he did it, and at that point now what? But by the end of it I felt like I got enough to see the man in a slightly new way. Before my impression of Cobain was of some cooler-than-thou dude who lived the rock and roll lifestyle too fast. In reality, he was a sensitive dude who loved punk rock and skyrocketed much too quickly to fame. Had Nevermind somehow not been so good, one wonder if he'd still be alive - or what else might've taken him down after a childhood of persona non grata status.
I didn't have that kind of attachment - I love the band and like his work as a lyricist and musician, but it stops there - so went in to this fairly fresh and only knowing scattered facts about Cobain (all of them petty and none of them really mentioned here). What made the movie work for me is that Morgen sets up empathy with his subject and the audience very quickly, and it's thanks to a treasure trove of archive material. This director had access to so much 8mm home movie footage, hand-held camcorder video from the early 90's, old Nirvana band tapes, audio cassette recordings that Kurt made as a teenager, even a couple of voicemail messages and conversations (if the movie doesn't make you want to check out Over the Edge, it's doing something wrong).
But most of all are the journal entries, which is where much of the real meat of Morgen's film comes through. You get a complete purview into who Cobain was, from youth up until just near the end, with these journals and they're full of so many words but also drawings - Cobain was an incredible drawer and artist, and maybe in another life could've been a comic book guy with the sensibility of a more deranged Mike Judge or something - so Morgen uses these to his advantage and leaps off from creating animations from these drawings into animations based on Kurt's words. Possibly the highlight of the first half of the movie comes with Cobain's story of being disaffected, smoking pot, and trying to have his first sexual experience with a messed up fat girl, and it's startling to see how these images unfold.
But unlike Chicago 10, the movie's not anchored in this style. Morgen is all over the place at times with his montages, going from behind the scenes footage of music videos to Kurt and Courtney's own home movies. The latter becomes borderline invasive in some way, not too far removed from watching the Tommy Lee/Pamela video from years back, minus the sex (though Courtney Love cant help but show some boob). Perhaps it is necessary to see just what their relationship was like without any media bias; this part is also brought forward with articles that I found fascinating for what could very well have been totally true... or a bunch of BS, and probably the truth was in the middle. They were junkies, they were in love, and the degree to how much they were using colors perceptions for people.
Oh, and the movie is with wall-to-wall Nirvana music, from very deep, obscure, super-early-career cuts from punk shows to Kurt recording the Beatles 'And I Love Her' on a little cassette. Morgen has a natural ability to combine images with rapid succession, but I never really felt lost so long as I was paying attention to what was going on on screen. I saw it on HBO, but now regret I didn't get the full visual-aural experience in a theater, since it seems made for that kind of maximum impact.
I don't even think Montage of Heck gives a 100% clear view of things that happened for Nirvana or in all of Cobain's life, and yet that's kind of fine - it has enough time to go through the major accomplishments, but it doesn't matter the how completely except that he did it, and at that point now what? But by the end of it I felt like I got enough to see the man in a slightly new way. Before my impression of Cobain was of some cooler-than-thou dude who lived the rock and roll lifestyle too fast. In reality, he was a sensitive dude who loved punk rock and skyrocketed much too quickly to fame. Had Nevermind somehow not been so good, one wonder if he'd still be alive - or what else might've taken him down after a childhood of persona non grata status.