A Seattle musician's life and career are reminiscent to those of Kurt Cobain.
Director:
Gus Van SantWriter:
Gus Van Sant
From metacritic.com
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Title: Last Days (2005)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Michael Pitt | ... | Blake | |
| Lukas Haas | ... | Luke | |
| Asia Argento | ... | Asia | |
 |
Scott Patrick Green | ... | Scott (as Scott Green) |
| Nicole Vicius | ... | Nicole | |
| Ricky Jay | ... | Detective | |
|
|
Ryan Orion | ... | Donovan |
| Harmony Korine | ... | Guy in Club | |
| Rodrigo Lopresti | ... | Band in Club (as The Hermitt) | |
| Kim Gordon | ... | Record Executive | |
|
|
Adam Friberg | ... | Elder Friberg #1 |
|
|
Andy Friberg | ... | Elder Friberg #2 |
| Thadeus A. Thomas | ... | Yellow Book Salesman | |
|
|
Chip Marks | ... | Tree Trimmer |
| Kurt Loder | ... | TV Voiceover (voice) | |
Introspective artist Blake is buckling under the weight of fame, professional obligations and a mounting feeling of isolation. Dwarfed by towering trees, Blake slowly makes his way through dense woods. He scrambles down an embankment to a fresh spring and undresses for a short swim. The next morning he returns to his house, an elegant, if neglected, stone mansion. Many people are looking for Blake--his friends, his managers and record label, even a private detective--but he does not want to be found. In the haze of his final hours, Blake will spend most his time by himself. He avoids the people who are living in his house, who approach him only when they want something, be it money or help with a song. He hides from one concerned friend and turns away another. He visits politely with a stranger from the Yellow Pages sales department, and he ducks into an underground rock club. He wanders through the woods and he plays a new song, one last rock and roll blowout. Finally, alone in the ... Written by Sujit R. Varma
"Last Days", Gus Van Sant's experimental film loosely inspired by Kurt Cobain's, err, last days, is not one of his best, but it's certainly not the worst (the "Psycho" remake, anyone?). Even though it's not half as poignant as the previous "Elephant", which has similar style, I admire Van Sant for daring to make such a personal, non-commercial film. "Last Days" is slow, hard to watch, "boring" as some people say, but that suits a brave attempt to show some moments of a troubled musician, "Blake" (Michael Pitt, from the wonderful "The Dreamers"), who seems completely lost and away from reality, trying to escape from himself in his house, surrounded by "friends" who are only interested in his money. Nothing "happens", like everybody says, throughout the film, and Van Sant partially succeeds in showing us the big empty inside and around Blake with bitter, raw strength. Pitt's performance is low-key at most, and Ricky Jay ("Magnolia") and Lukas Haas ("Witness"), two criminally underrated actors, don't disappoint in their small roles. We can't say anyone in the cast stands out, though, because this is a movie where the scenery (the house, the forest) is the biggest character, eating Blake up.
"Last Days" didn't engage me enough to make me want to re-watch it, but I didn't regret watching it. Far from being a masterpiece, but worth seeing if you're looking for a different option and are interested in the main subject, of course. This is not a movie for a Kelly Clarkson or Lindsay Lohan fan, but please don't say this is the biggest piece of pretentious crap out there - I'm pretty sure Björk|Matthew Barney's "Drawing Restraint 9" is a lot worse.