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Last Days
Category: Film Reviews
Posted by Mark Runyon | August 18, 2005 | 10:23 PM
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Grade: F | Genre: Drama
Summary: Caution. Slowly back away from the ticket counter. This film will prove hazardous to your evening.
Newsflash: Gus Van Sant has uncovered the real reason behind Kurt Cobain's suicide. It wasn't the heroin addiction, the trappings of fame or even dealing with the insufferable leech Courtney Love. It was actually a moment of clarity that came while watching a video for Boys II Men's "On Bended Knee." He realized the soul of music had been sucked out through a straw, and he no longer wanted to live in such a sick and twisted world. Ah, if it were only that simple. Cobain's death still remains shrouded in mystery to this day. I was hoping Van Sant was going to shed some much needed light on the subject to help some of us struggling Nirvana fans finally achieve closure on the subject. Instead, he gives us the most boring two hours of my life. Watching grass grow would be more compelling than having to sit through this film. It's atrociously bad. |
Last Days, or Ode to Boredom as I'm now referring to it, was the third installment of a series of unfiltered looks at life by accomplished director Gus Van Sant. It worked incredibly well in Elephant, which chronicled the hours leading up to the Columbine shooting disaster. Following the kids around and seeing their mundane day, only to have it shockingly shattered when two kids come in with bags of guns, helped us to get a grip on this senseless act of violence. It really made a lasting impact that the flurry of coverage from the 24/7 news channels could never achieve. Gerry (Matt Damon, Casey Affleck) whittled away at our patience like Last Days as our characters get lost in the desert and wander for days. Though it was interminable long, there was something interesting in watching the characters fall apart and the ending served up a sandwich of cruel irony. Last Days has no redeemable features. Now I know Van Sant is artsy, and I consider myself to be a friend to the art community. I'll give any director enough rope to hang themselves, and he did just that. Last Days is so bad on so many levels.
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| Last Days |
Starring: Michael Pitt, Lukas Haas, Asia Argento, Kim Gordon & Ryan Fellner
Director: Gus Van Sant |
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| View the Trailer (Quicktime) |
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Where to start. There really is no plot. It is basically the camera following around a person generally wigging out for two days which is about as interesting as waiting in line all day at the DMV. At least at the DMV you have some interesting characters to watch. Our Kurt Cobain wanna be goes by the name of Blake as played by Michael Pitt (Jen's old flame Henry from Dawson's Creek). Everything is Kurt from the stringy 'please wash me' blonde hair, the Goodwill wardrobe all the way to the general slow despondency. Why Van Sant doesn't just say this is Kurt is probably legal entanglements with his estate, read the living suction cup Courtney Love, and to afford him more elbow room for creative licenses. We spy Blake swim in the river. We eye him struggle to make Mac and Cheese. We start to doze off as he collapses to the floor after watching him in the state of collapse for two minutes. Don't even get me started on why we stared at leaves on a tree for five minutes. The movie is filled with these bland trivialities that don't accomplish anything. Throughout I kept praying for something to happen, anything. Instead, I just kept getting bludgeoned with boredom. I got all giddy when the guy behind us dropped his popcorn. At least the theatre had a touch of drama.
The one thing you are dying for is a remote to click the fast forward button. Not only do we not have this luxury, but also Van Sant seems to thumb his nose at us by replaying several droll sequences from a slightly different perspective. Yep, just as dry that time as it was the first. It got so bad that several people in the audience pulled the cord early and, of those that remained, you'd hear the occasional exasperated laughter as if to say "why am I still sitting here watching this?"
The only interesting moments came when outsiders crash into this sheltered house, insulating Blake and a few of his mooching friends. The general discomfort of the 'real' yellow pages salesman trying to confirm an ad while Blake sits in a women's negligee, drifting between consciousnesses, is a nice momentary reprieve. Also when the group is so bored they invite in a couple door-to-door preachers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, almost refusing to let them leave. These poor souls have doors slammed in their face everyday, and they can't wait to high tail it out of this funny farm. Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth does make an flavorful appearance as a concerned friend of Blake's that at least perks your interest momentarily. She does get in the most potent line of the film, not that there were many to choose from, when she asks, "Do you talk to your daughter? Do you say I'm sorry that I'm a rock 'n' roll cliche?" Of course this illicites no response from Blake.
To put this into perspective, I've only walked out on one film in my life, Pauly Shore's Biodome, and Last Days came painfully close to being number two. It didn't shed any light on the tragic death of Cobain nor did it even highlight any of his painful struggles. If we were to believe this portrayal, we'd have to surmise he died from utter boredom. I just really don't see what the point of this film was. Gus Van Sant has really tarnished his brilliant catalog with this bomb. It will be a while before I can get over this psychic scar to see one of his new releases again. Until then, I'll queue up Drugstore Cowboy and My Own Private Idaho to reflect on a director whose light was snuffed out much too soon.
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