Based
(in part, at least) on the last few days of grunge rocker Kurt Cobain’s troubled life,
Van Sant’s sensuously unhurried, formally elegant, and bizarrely humorous, yet
decidedly moving film follows the final movements of the dishevelled Kurt-substitute Blake (Michael
Pitt, painfully good) as he gets ever closer to his sad but grisly demise, capturing
him stumbling around his eerie mansion and surrounding woodland, making snacks,
playing music, communing with nature, and mumbling away to himself. Composed of
long, fluid takes, with minimal plot and little dialogue, Last Days won’t be for everyone, but for those willing to embrace its slow,
contemplative ways it will likely prove spellbinding.
