Kurt Cobain - About A Son [2006] [DVD]

The previous reviewers are correct to point out that this film does not include any Nirvana music or performances, though there are several still photographs. What it does have going for it is about 90 minutes of Kurt Cobain in conversation with AJ Schnack in preparation for his excellent Nirvana biography: "Come as you are". The recordings are played back over present day footage of Aberdeen, Olympia and Seattle (places where Kurt lived) all in Washington State and some "artistic" material used to illustrate the narrative. It has been edited together in chronological order as Kurt tells his story from childhood and onto the reaction following the release of Nevermind.

What you may not gather from the other reviews is quite how moving a film this is, as well as a unique record of Kurt's story. I learnt a lot from watching this. You get inside his head and see things from his perspective and the background footage of Washington does not distract you from what you are hearing. Moreover, some of the snippets of music playing on the soundtrack, which is often contemporary to the story and music known to appeal to Kurt, are excellent, though not all appear on the soundtrack CD Kurt Cobain: About a Son
Museum, which is played over the end credits, is from an album by Mark Lanegan, which Kurt provided backing vocals for and is a very moving song.

My only criticism is that I would have appreciated sub-titles. It's not always easy to understand what is being said.

It's a fantastic compilation of audio tapes recorded by Michael Azerrad (writer of 'Come As You Are' : Nirvana's only official biography written with consent of every band member). The audio tapes he recorded are set to fantastic imagery that really add to the experience. I have personally never read or watched anything on Nirvana that I have found more enjoyable and revealing than this. The audio tapes are exclusively of Cobain and reveals more about his personality and temperament than any book you'd care to read.

Unless someone magically comes across one lying in a box somewhere, we are never going to get a Kurt Cobain autobiography. The closest thing we'll get is "Kurt Cobain - About a Son," a documentary cobbled out of Michael Azerrad's interviews with the late rock'n'roll star -- and Cobain both explores his own past and strips away some of his legends.

The interviews took place in the early nineties over the course of a few months, about a year before Cobain's tragic death. Some are in person, and a few are over the phone. They're pleasantly informal and laid-back, since Cobain munches on a sandwich during one segment, and is occasionally interrupted by Courtney.

Over the course of several interviews, Cobain reflects on his life before rock stardom -- his childhood and his hometown, his formative years of mischief, his love of punk rock, his desire to be a rock star, and the early days of Nirvana. Cobain also contemplated drugs, health problems, his allure to flies, his quirky art, Courtney Love, fatherhood, turtles, misanthropy, death, oregano, journalists (I guess Azerrad was an exception), his bandmates, being onstage, the future of rock'n'roll, and his own reputation.

Since the interviews were taped with sound only, director AJ Schnack fills the screen with soundless, strangely ambient images from Seattle, Olympia and Aberdeen. Musicians, stores, logging machines, streets, forests, houses and faces pass by quietly -- as well as some weird cartoons. It feels a little like a nostalgic look through Cobain's own eyes.

Cobain himself was a remarkable person who has been overshadowed by his own posthumous legend (even when he was alive). In these interviews, he sounds like an intelligent man sitting down to have a frank conversation with a friend -- he sounds relaxed, laid-back and mostly at peace with his life as it then was, particularly when talking about his child (he recounts how when he saw her in a sonagram, she was making the "hook 'em horns"). He has a lot of funny anecdotes, and a childlike fascination with the world that is truly endearing.

But as the interviews go on, we start seeing the multifaceted, contradictory creature that Cobain was -- darkness/light, loathing/fascination with people, childlike/painfully mature, earnest/jaded, passionate/lazy, craving fame yet somewhat disgusted by it.

It's obvious he had learned a lot from his past, since he spends a lot of time analyzing his own youthful mind and how people saw him ("I usually am enjoying myself; I'm hardly ever depressed anymore"). Near the end, he even comments that his own personal problems are not unusual or the worst, showing that he had grown up a lot -- when asked if his was a sad story, Cobain laughs and says, "No... not really, I mean... it's nothing that's amazing or new, that's for sure."

And Cobain made some eerily prophetic statements as well -- he complains about rock'n'roll ("It's sad to think what the state of rock'n'roll will be in about twenty years from now...") and discusses death ("If I was gonna blow my head off with a gun, I may as well take the risk of dying from drugs").

"Kurt Cobain: About a Son" is a bittersweet experience -- it offers some truly beautiful insights into the mind of a true artist, but leaves you wishing he hadn't departed quite so soon.