Last Days
 

Record*Executive:*Have*you*uh,*talked*to*your*daug hter?*Hmm.*
Blake:*Hmm.*Yeah*I've*been*talking*to*her*on*the*p hone.*
Record*Executive:*What*do*you*say*to*her?*
Blake:*Hmm-mm.*I*do*the*voices*she*likes.*I*don't*know.*I*tel l*her*I*miss*her.*

Man stumbles into a river, pees, then dries his clothes by a fire in the woods alone, in the dark of night; mumbles and screams...

"Isn't me, have a seat, let me clear, dirty wings"

Last Days is painfully underrated.

Last Days is terrible. I'd rather watch his Psycho remake!

Last Days has like two good scenes. Mala Noche and Drugstore Cowboy and Gerry and Paranoid Park are really good films, the rest can fuck off.

Which two scenes do you think are good? :) Inquiring minds... This is NOT the "Spanish Inquisition!"

Asia Argento in glasses.

Camera slowly panning out as kurt makes noise.

except idaho surely!

i prefer elephant to gerry.

gotsta love the trenchcoat mafia

not a good movie to watch with impatient people on drugs.

I forgot about My Own Private Idaho. Excellent film. Elephant is good enough, but those kids annoy me. I thought Paranoid Park was kinda trying to do the same thing Elephant did, in a lot of ways, but did it much better.

Those two scenes are really emotionally engaging. The rest of the movie is a constant slow build up, though it seems it never reaches release. But I feel that is a big part of the movie's thing. It really portrays the angst of the whole era and of the man who made that era possible, and of course, where it all led to...

Last days is uhm, slow and irritating.

Elephant is one of my favourites as is drugstore cowboy

It's just hard to appreciate from any angle, that's my problem with it. It doesn't really have an atmosphere. It's just impossible to get into or enjoy. And I like a lot of "anti-films", I mean Godard's my favorite director, and that's half of his late-period work! But, uh, yeah. There's no art to it, no atmosphere to it, no story, no drama, no UN-drama, it just seems to exist in a vaccuum, and it also bothers me that a director like Jon Jost is UNKNOWN and has made 28 perfect films but Gus Van Sant can make absolute bullshit and it's praised to high heaven because, um, well.. I dunno why. GOOD WILL HUNTING?

Hey, I liked Good Will Hunting.

Right, and that's why he is allowed to make LAST DAYS.

Since MILK was a hit, now he'll probably make 2 or 3 more shitty films.

But seriously, Mala Noche, that's a good one.

I like Last Days because it's a beautiful mood piece. I could care less about who directed it.

Beautiful mood piece?! Never heard anyone describe it as that. Since the entire film is just a guy falling down a thousand times, and walking through the woods, I dunno where the beauty is; but then, I think the end of "The Doom Generation", with Rose McGowan eating Dorritos while Slowdive plays, is one of the most beautiful things ever filmed. But I'll agree with you that Asia Argento in glasses is beautiful. The rest is film is boring and lazy. It seems like they threw Korine in there for the hell of it, haha.

Lemme reccomend any Ozu, Korosawa, Kitano, Jost, Brakhage, late Godard, or Katusuyi Ishii (specifically Taste of Tea) films to you for some really beautiful stuff. KOYANNISQATSI is also worth a look... beauty personified!

Exactly.

Maybe context is missing for you? There's an undertow there; sort of a general sense of unease and desperation... The sound editing is also a big part of the whole film; I remember reading somewhere about that... The train passing by as Blake finds his way out of the woods, the unidentifiable wilderness twittering around; mixed right in front, so it sounds like it's swirling all around Blake's head, and we can FEEL it...

The lady in red at the end, like the harbinger of doom; the unknown; the unidentifiable itself come to claim Blake as one of its own... To bring Blake to the mythical; a force of nature; to be a part of wilderness that haunted Blake as he ran and ran...

No, trust me, I get the film, I just don't see anything special in it, a scene or two notwithstanding, the whole film felt incredibly lazy and self-indulgent. Sure, there's some nice sound editing and pretty images, but what film doesn't have that stuff nowadays? A film like this can be made by any hack with a camera; that's why I keep bringing up Van Sant's other films, because he has proven he is not just some hack, he actually has a great deal of talent and imagination. I just think the whole thing is quite stupid, also -- recreating Kurt's last days? I mean, come on. Might be an easy sale to Nirvana fans, but it's hard for me to take seriously.

Also, the guy who plays Blake/Kurdt... did you see the music video on the disc? The special features with his music video? It's the worst thing I've ever seen!

All I know is, my mom bought me this movie for $4 at Wal-Mart a few years ago and I made her take it back after I watchd it and told her to get something nice with that $4 refund!

i remember reading in an van sant interview about someone he was "really inspired by" and thinking "ah... that's were it comes from, i need to check that guy out" but i couldnt remember where i read it, and now since you've said its obviously jost.

the interview kinda felt like he was almost apologising for ripping him off so much.

i liked last days but i felt there was something missing in it. i've watched it like 5 times and i think the point he was going for was sort of bring your own context. like he said it was a fictional meditation. the first time i saw gerry it was great, the first few scenes i really enjoyed because i didn't know what to expect. but i wouldn't watch it again.

i enjoyed last days because it has that self indulgent/experimental spirit that kurt might have appreciated. most of the nirvana fans were expecting chase sequences werein kurt and layne staley shoot grunge crystals (heroin) to give them enough power to play mad anti solos that deafen their pursuers. it didn't give them that or any kind of heroic mythologisation (maybe a little).

but i felt there was something missing in the film. something major that should have been it there but got cut out. and in a way its almost a kinder tribute than the reality of what actually went on. kurt was way more pyschologically fucked up at that point and was literally hiding out from everyone, sneaking into peoples rooms and rearranging ornaments. he had completely lost touch with any semblance of a healthy engagement with reality and died in quite tragic and pathetic way. it wasn't some sort of ponderous existential crisis. it was something closer to a guy possibly with brain damage absolutely fried from one of the greatest binges known to america who realised his credit cards had been stopped and people were threatening to take away his money, career and child, and felt totally boxed into a corner with no way out. it was a sad sad ending to a man who was both exploited and self destructive. i've been a MASSIVE nirvana fan for years and know the details of their story pretty well and it is not something you want to imitate. its a disasterous spiral downwards.

of course that reality can't really become known because you gotta sell the senstive artist superman jesus musician angle to the kids so thankfully hollywood is going to step in and rewrite reality yet again to make some sort of romantic bullshit narrartive about "tortured genius".

Drugstore Cowboy and Paranoid Park are still perfect after multiple viewings. Elephant rules as well.

Actually Last Days shows exactly the man's tragedy and pitifulness... Kurt's main crux is 'the suffering of an artist'. He actually believed that wholeheartedly; and at the same time; he wanted to capture the playful, cathartic essence that is rock; that was Nevermind... I believe the mixing of the two yielded a mysterious, massively destructive force that completely engulfed Cobain and transformed him into a tightly-rolled ball of guilt and sorrow. This was a man who was both admired by Fred Durst and Thurston Moore, don't forget that... And in forging such a unique and powerful legacy; he ultimately consumed himself in the process...

Last Days is not so much a film, as it is a cinematic essay peeking into the lives of these tragic 'grunge' caricatures; and the central, pinnacle figure in the center of the revolving wheel...

i don't really give a fuck what names he was admired by. or for your romanticising bullshit. yeah, suffering artist and playful essence of rock, nice way of putting it. but you also need to add massively pyshcotic drug induced egomania to that. you're still romanticising it. massively. stupidly. here's a hint at what actually consumed him. cigs booze skag weed crack pills junk etc.

but i am not replying to anymore of this because im not going to dare open this can of worms.

watch it Ni'k you're too young to use the word skag...:)
man that word comes from the sixties.

we use it in ireland more than any other word for heroin.

but having said that we also use the word "hippie" to describe anyone who looks, em, remotely anything.

so yeah we are a bit behind the times.

n'ik, you continue to make posts that are up there with dead-air's as the most thought provoking, intelligent, and hilarious on the board. Bravo! The part about the crystal meth chase sequences to make anti-solos... why don't you do a website like markprindle.com or some shit? I mean, seriously. Not trying to kiss your di'k or anything, but...

I think they still need to make a hardcore, true-to-life Kurt film, wherein he spits in fan's faces (literally), rapes turtles with pencils, doesn't show up to band practice, nods off to sleep while fucked up on heroin while holding his infant daughter, and doesn't appreciate any of his fans, friends, family, or band members who helped him become a millionaire rock star, which he always wanted, obviously, even though he always had to play up the punk card "I DON'T WANNA SELL OUT MAN! LET'S RELEASE IN UTERO, WHICH HAS RAPE ME, THE WORST SONG EVER WRITTEN, ON IT!"

thanks. yeah thats why i took the blog offline for a while, to redo it in a less serious style. it'll be up again when i get the time.

C'mon, Adam ... really?

Last Days slaps a nerve in me that very few films ever do. This is the same nerve seemingly reserved for films like Eraserhead, or Begotten.

The film perfectly captures the stress-filled, pretentiously grim mind of it's main protagonist, and consistently heaves it into it's viewers' faces. Rarely, have I ever felt so isolated from watching a film, yet so simultaneously "at home" with the film's characters. It truly is a unique experience, and the outstanding cameos (Korine, Kim, etc.) throughout the film only strengthen it further.

I mean, you wouldn't necessarily call it a forgettable film...would you?

excellent and insightful

yes yes yes yes yes

last days is fucking boring

"lazy and self indulgent" hit the nail right on the head

I thought it sucked.

Nice posts btw, Nik

I think Last Days did too good of a job at what it set out to do for most people to enjoy it.

What do you guys think of flicks like The Brown Bunny?

EDIT: I'm pretty sure the whole point of these films was to be painful. Kinda like how you feel after watching The Weather Man. Both that, and The Brown Bunny receive very similar criticisms to Last Days. I mean, doesn't transporting a feeling of unease from media/art to the human mind translate to the film being successful in it's execution?

Seriously, I don't get it. I know half of you jerk off to shit like La Vie Nouvelle...so how can you so easily dismiss this?

Is that the sister with spinal meningitis from 'Pet Sematary'?

Poor man's Singles.

The Brown Bunny is a masterpiece. Amazing film. Has nothing in common with Last Days. The Weather Man's a good mainstream comedy, has nothing in common with any of these films. La Vie Nouvelle is a terrifying art film. Has nothing in common with any of these films either. I dunno what point you're trying to make, except to namedrop a bunch of films that have some bleakness or emptiness in them.

But, like, every film I watch is nihilistic.

But not every film I watch is dull and lazy like this one. This film felt like something anyone could have made. There's just not much to it. Sure, the content may mirror the tone, the bleakness, the nothingness of existence -- but, well, it sure is shitty to sit through. Give me Jost's BED YOU SLEEP IN, BELL DIAMOND, SLOW MOVES, SURE FIRE, etc. Now those are movies that communicate bleakness in an interesting way...

Anyway, glad you like it and got something out of it, man.

Anyway, props to the Rubin on Letterman pic. RUBIN AND ED rules.