Kurt Cobain About a Son (2006)

74% of critics liked it
(42 reviews)
75% of users liked it
(3,022 ratings)

Filmmaker A.J. Schnack draws from over 25 hours of audio-taped interviews to offer an intimate meditation on the life of the man who changed the face of rock & roll in the 1990s in this film that uses materials originally gathered for music journalist Michael Azerrad's book Come as You Are: The… More Filmmaker A.J. Schnack draws from over 25 hours of audio-taped interviews to offer an intimate meditation on the life of the man who changed the face of rock & roll in the 1990s in this film that uses materials originally gathered for music journalist Michael Azerrad's book Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana. From his early childhood to his discovery of music and his troubled attempts to make sense of his skyrocketing fame as a member of Nirvana, Kurt Cobain recounts his life in a series of previously unreleased recordings. By combining the interviews with footage of Aberdeen, Olympia, and Seattle -- three Washington cities that played a major role in Cobain's tragically short life -- director Schnack assembles a dreamlike journey into the mind of an oft-discussed but widely misunderstood legend. An ethereal score by Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard and Nirvana producer Steve Fisk, as well as songs by some of Cobain's favorite recording artists including David Bowie and the Melvins, merge with evocative imagery to strip away the legend and portray the subject as a real man whose talents stood in stark contrast to his ability to deal with the hardships of fame. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 37 min.
Directed By: AJ Schnack
Genres: Musical & Performing Arts, Documentary

In Theaters: Oct 3, 2007 Wide
On DVD: Feb 19, 2008
Studio: Balcony Releasing

Critic Reviews

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader
Only loosely connected to the story, the visuals quickly grow monotonous.
Joel Selvin, San Francisco Chronicle
The ending section, where Schnack and Azerrad let Cobain ramble philosophically about life and music, is a muddled intellectual mess.
Joan Anderman, Boston Globe
Kurt Cobain About a Son is a lovely piece of filmmaking, a gripping, minimalist marriage of sound and image.
Ann Hornaday, Washington Post
As important for what it reveals about a seminal and grievously misunderstood artist as for how it rejuvenates a moribund documentary form.
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer
Less a movie than an illustrated audiotape, Kurt Cobain: About a Son is nonetheless fascinating for what it reveals of its subject,
V.A. Musetto, New York Post
There's definitely an anti-doc vibe going on here, which is fitting for a man who refused to conform during a short but productive life.
Kelly Vance, East Bay Express
The images combine with Cobain's voiceover for a cumulative effect that seeps into the film rather than exploding onto it.
Jennifer Merin, About.com
Filmmaker AJ Schnack uses 25-hours of previously unheard audio interviews with Cobain as voice over for footage of Cobain haunts. The images are mesmerizing, but Cobain never appears on screen, and he is missed.
Rossiter Drake, San Francisco Examiner
As an illustrated audio tour through the life of a gifted but self-destructive performer, 'About a Son' is enlightening to a point, but one has to wonder when filmmakers will stop exhuming the corpse of a man who desperately craved privacy.
Bill Gibron, PopMatters
The internal yin and yang that drove this isolated Pacific Northwest child to the heights of rock stardom, and the depths of personal despair, are given a remarkable airing in AJ Schnack's tone poem to one man's talent...
Sal Cinquemani, Slant Magazine
AJ Schnack's Kurt Cobain: About a Son is as gripping and revealing as Gus Van Sant's Last Days was hollow and pointless.
John Wirt, Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA)
Shaped from Cobain's own words, the film tells his story with care, in inventive style and without phony reverence or pretentious pronouncements.
Liz Braun, Jam! Movies
Most of the material has never been made public before, so the movie is a must-see for Cobain fans. Even for non-fans, it is quite an astonishing document. Up to a point.
Brian Tallerico, The Deadbolt
Allows the fans that the legendary musician will keep gathering for decades to come a brief look inside Cobain's troubled mind, and it does so in a refreshingly bold and innovative way.
Matt Pais, Metromix.com
A fascinating plunge into one man's thicket of contradictions.
George Varga, San Diego Union-Tribune
There is much to fault in this tedious exercise in pseudo-hipster cool masquerading as, well, what exactly?
Brian Gibson, Vue Weekly (Edmonton, Canada)
Startlingly de-mythologizing at first, then just plain poignant . . . it's fascinating to reconcile Cobain's slacker howl over chipping guitar chords with a sodden Pacific Northwest of logging trucks and fishing boats.
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul), St. Paul Pioneer Press
Many of the images aren't particularly compelling and neither, frankly, are Cobain's comments, which range from dull anti-press diatribes to familiar stories about the musical influence of his Aunt Mary to inarticulate blather.
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
It's easy to get lost in his words, especially if you're a fan. I ended up enjoying the film overall, even if I had to wonder whether Cobain himself would have approved of a film like this.

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Featured Audience Ratings

Rubia Carolina .

 You want a part of me Well, I'm not selling cheap No, I'm not selling cheap* Between December 1992 and March 1993, the music journalist Michael Azerrad interviewed Kurt Cobain for his book Come As You Are: The Story of… More
 You want a part of me Well, I'm not selling cheap No, I'm not selling cheap* Between December 1992 and March 1993, the music journalist Michael Azerrad interviewed Kurt Cobain for his book Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana, published by Doubleday. Almost all the 25 hours of audio taped interviews took place between midnight and dawn at Kurt´s house in Seattle, Washington. One year after the last of these interviews, Kurt committed suicide. Years later, Azerrad meets the director AJ Schnack and the idea of the movie comes in. Shot in the three cities where Kurt lived, Aberdeen, Olympia and Seattle, and not featuring any Nirvana song or image of him until the very end, Kurt Cobain About a Son is something between a documentary and an (auto)biography where we see an honest (self)portrait of Kurt. At least, as honest as it can be. The use of random images and other music artists works when trying to give importance to what Kurt is saying, when trying to show the person instead of the icon. Gus Van Sant´s Last Days, that focus on the icon (Kurt´s sun glasses, wearing a dress, etc) and use the silence to try to get into Kurt´s mind/world, works, but as a portrait of the character as we know it. Childhood, father´s absence, adolescence, art, musical identity, depression, fame, life. It is an interesting view on the construction of a real character and on trying to discover the real person. Kurt wanted to be famous, but didn´t expect to become a "fucking cartoon character". People do not deserve to know about my life private now. (...) The thing that I've always, that I've never understood, is the classic reaction to someone who complains that's in the limelight is like "well, you know, you made your bed, now you have to sleep in it. That's what everyone expects. You're public domain now, and everyone has the right to know everything about you." (...) I don´t agree with people saying: "everyone has a right to know." I have the right to change that perception. I have the right to change people´s way of thinking of celebrities. It should be changed. It should be different. They should be treated as human beings and respected (in their private issues). *Celebrity Skin, by Hole. In the movie Kurt talks a lot about fame and its consequences, about the pressure over him and Courtney Love. updated: I left the movie playing while working on other things. I prefer to listen to it than watching it. It was like Kurt was in my room, talking directly with me.
Adriel L

Great documentary. Got to know the man personally.
Mike T

This is more than a film. The uncompromising honesty and profound artistry of Cobain's words cut right to the core of me. This is an absolute must-see for all true fans of Nirvana, and anyone interested in Kurt Cobain as a man and a musician.

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Kurt Cobain

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Kurt Cobain About a Son (2006)

Critic Reviews

Featured Audience Ratings

Rubia Carolina .

Adriel L

Mike T

Cast

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