Gus Van Sant's Last Days

Kim Welch

Senior Member
Staff member
Gus Van Sant's Last Days

Nice pictures but no movement. The movie was not slow it literaly never went anywhere. It has a tragic romantic drug loner type thing that just didn’t work. I hated it. Maybe if you worshipped Kurt Cobain or if you are a Heroin junky you might like this movie. I think this needs to be a training film used to show what not to do in filmmaking.

There is no turning point in the story, no love affair, no soul, no reality and it didn’t have any of the substance that makes a good movie. It was not entertaining or insightful.

The Cinematography was good but it was nice pictures without a moving story. My friend literally fell asleep! Where was Courtney Love? And, who were those other people! I think i made the mistake of thinking his girl friend was his mom. i still don't know who she was but maybeKurt fans who have seen this movie know. If someone can tell me that would be a big help.

I am sure some people try hard to see this as some kind of lofty interpretation of Kurt's life or the last days and life of a genius of some sort but I say nay. I say it is just bad, really bad. And I think the worst part is the romanticizing of heroin use! What is up with that?!

Why not show him missing a vein with holes in his arms and his face sunken in or him hiding in a closet instead of traipsing around out in the beautiful open country side? Don’t heroin addicts isolate and stay inside out of the light!? Instead he runs around in the outdoors which gives him some kind of explorer quality and glorification that was just bad, real bad.

Truly
Kim
 
I haven't seen it but I heard it was officially not supposed to be about Cobain but its so incredibly obvious that this is an adaptation of his life. So what I dont get is, if they are going to follow so closely in the steps of his life...why not make the movie actually about Cobain instead of draw up some fictitious narrative?
 
I agree completely. I'm glad Gus Van Sant is trying new things (like making movies where nothing happens) and he is good at creating moods, but I think that is one of the big problems with movies today. All anyone wants to do is create a mood, nobody really knows how to tell a story, beat by beat. it's all about "What song can we put on the soundtrack" or "let's have montage with some really cool shots". That stuff is fun, but making a film that transports the audience emotionally is a nigh impossible task. Elephant had some really elegant camera work, really amazing tracking shots, but come on, do we really need an hour and a half of some blond guy moping around his house in a cardigan? Maybe Van Sant is just bored with the same old moviemaking formula. I admire him for trying new things, it's always important to be audacious (and what's more audicious than trying to remake "Psycho"), but I think "Last Days" is criminally bad. Then again, I haven't really liked any of the Gus Van Sant movies I've seen (Drugstore Cowboy, Elephant, Last Days).
 

Network Sponsors

Back
Top