About a Son Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I've now missed seeing A.J. Schnack's film Kurt Cobain About a Son at least three times -- last year at Toronto, and this year at both AFI Dallas and Seattle. But now, thank goodness and all things flannel and depressing, I'll have another chance to see it, and so will you. Over at indieWIRE, Eugene Hernandez posted the other day that Balcony Releasing will debut the film at the IFC Center in New York City on October 3, followed by a Los Angeles opening at the Nuart a few days later. The film will play Seattle, Cobain's hometown, at The Varsity on October 12, and will get a DVD release early next year.

If you're not familiar with the film (read more about it on its official website) it's based on some 25 hours of previously unheard audio interviews with Cobain conducted about a year before Cobain's suicide by Michael Azerrad as research and background for his book Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana. In the interviews, Cobain discusses everything from his childhood, to music, to dealing with fame. I was a little old when Nivrana's album Nevermind came out to start dressing in flannel shirts and ripped jeans, but I've always loved Nirvana's music. Cobain's angst, no doubt, felt very personal to him, but his music conveyed those emotions universally; anyone who's been an adolescent and felt isolated from the status quo could find comfort and commonality in Nirvana's music.

October seems a long way off at the moment, but here's a roundup of write-ups of the film, which is currently sitting at 83% with a smattering of reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, to get you excited about it in the meantime. Oh, and when you're done with that, you can check out Schnacks' blog, All these wonderful things, where his latest post takes on the issue that's been taking the film and book blogging worlds by storm this week: embargoes. It's a well-written piece, so check it out.

"In 'Kurt Cobain About a Son,' Director AJ Schnack takes a fresh approach to non-fiction storytelling, turning the idea of the traditional music doc on its head ..." -- Jonny Leahan for indieWIRE


"It's clear almost immediately that Kurt Cobain: About a Son has little to offer detractors of the deceased Nirvana singer, though AJ Schnack's directorial choices admittedly lend the proceedings a surprisingly artful sort of vibe."
-- Reel Film's Toronto 2006 Update

"This film is not a typical rockumentary full of celebrity and friendly talking heads, archival concert footage or anecdotes and pictures from Kurt's past. What this is, simply, is Kurt Cobain's voice, carrying on an extended conversation." -- Mark Bell, Film Threat


"Impressionistic docu "Kurt Cobain About a Son" is a counterpoint to the iconic late Nirvana rocker's legacy." -- Dennis Harvey, Variety

You might remember long ago, way back in that old year of 2005, when Cinematical first wrote about the Kurt Cobain documentary in the works -- the one that would use hours of audio interviews with the music icon that band biographer Michael Azzerad had recorded. Now the film, which is called Kurt Cobain: About a Son, has been traveling the festival circuits and getting decent reviews. While there has been no word on a regular theatrical run or DVD release, the Documentary Blog has recently posted a YouTube link showing a clip of the film.

The clip shows Cobain talking about how he's "pissed off at everything, in general." While he describes that his songs are his battle with the things that anger him, the doc shows subdued pictures of a ferry, water, sunset and other calm scenes -- a pretty noticeable juxtaposition with the anger the Nirvana frontman is talking about. So, basically, if you love the man, you'll want to see this to hear him speak -- but it doesn't look like you can expect much more than his words and a beautiful slide show. It's his words matched with visuals, rather than his words matched with contextual images of his life and the things he is talking about. I imagine this is one of those love or hate sort of films, and hopefully we'll get a chance to see soon enough. In the meantime, you might want to check out the doc's soundtrack -- it's a pretty funk melange of music featuring tunes from Bad Brains, Arlo Guthrie, David Bowie and more.