MUBI

As far as I’m concerned, going into Last Days expecting to see a portrait of Kurt Cobain is an immediate mistake. Allegedly, writer/director Gus Van Sant’s initial intentions with the project were slightly more ambiguous than the ultimate result. It was primarily an intuitive decision made by lead actor Michael Pitt to play his character as a ragged blonde grunge rocker reminiscent of Cobain. This film is bigger than the examination of one individual. It’s not about one person, living or dead. This is the third entry in Gus Van Sant’s minimalist, borderline abstract Death trilogy. It is arguably the strongest installment.

The trilogy began in 2002 with Gerry, a visually striking film in which two young men got lost in a desert, ending in tragic results. The follow-up was Elephant (2003), a sensitive and poignant recreation of the Columbine shootings. Once again, we watched as two young men moved quietly towards a grim conclusion. With Last Days, Van Sant re-examines the death of a young man at his own hands.

The young man depicted is named Blake. We watch him wander slowly through a forest in filthy clothes that hang limply off his bones. We watch him attempting at human connection, only to submissively accept as the people around him take advantage of his weakness. He mutters indiscernably through most of the film, providing us with a cryptic indicator of a man deep in his own presumably morbid thoughts. Harris Savides, the cinematographer of all three Death films, does a magnificent job of capturing Van Sant’s vision. For most of the first act in Last Days, Blake’s face is only seen from a distance, or from behind a curtain of his own long hair.

The detachment of the visual approach serves as a disarming juxtaposition to the intimacy of the events we witness. Blake’s bizarre, obviously depressed actions and reactions are explored from a voyeuristic but neutral standpoint. Many people have accused the film of being pointless and boring. I disagree. The combination of a foreboding, moody sound design and gorgeously simplistic photography is brilliant. The painstaking pace of the picture reaches its full potential in numerous chilling, unforgettable scenes. My favorite may be the moment when we watch Blake, alone, gasp out one final musical performance, singing a melancholy song written by Pitt himself called “Death to Birth”.

The truth that results from this film’s approach should be largely attributed to Michael Pitt. The underrated young performer takes the definition of nuanced acting to a new level. Evidently conscious of the film’s distance, he never feels remotely self-aware. He opens this character’s soul to us from afar with achingly honest results. When told by one journalist that he walks exactly like Cobain in the film, Pitt responded plainly with “I walked like a junkie.” His character choice has echoes of Cobain, and sometimes they are loud echoes. He even has a striking physical resemblance to the dark beauty of the deceased musician. However, the triumph of his work here is in the fact that he accurately conveys a man whose identity is fading, someone whose soul is dwindling until his final disturbing moment on screen.

Last Days is not for everyone. This is clear to see from its lukewarm critical response and largely unenthusiastic feedback from audiences. It is a meticulously crafted piece with specific intent and ideas, but its aims will not be visible or effective for everyone. A lot of people say its intentions are meaningless. I strongly oppose those sentiments. For me, this film goes above and beyond achieving its goals. This is a resonant, unsettling account of a human being who crumbles underneath the burdens of his life and submits to fate. It’s not about the frontman of Nirvana. It is about isolation, depression, and most importantly it is about the dark corners of the human psyche.

This is probably my favorite Gus Van Sant film to date. After watching Last Days, it settles into the subconscious and imprints its haunting beauty in the memory of its viewers. Like a bleak, subtextual poem, the least this film should do for anyone is leave them thinking.

Ok, i can say that Pitt again is outstanding, but in general, what was the film purpose, what was deeper meaning. Maybe it’s just me that didn’t get the film, but besides the scene where Blake is playing a guitar the film just don’t touch me, or I don’t touch it enough. And in general the movies from vanSant almost always amaze me, and leave me with the feeling of fulfillment, but this one just didn’t left any remark.

Con esa especie de poder visual que se suele desprender del reciente cine de Gus Van Sant, “Last Days” se transforma en una pelicula única, que se aleja de esa idea que se podria haber tenido acerca de “filmar los últimos días de Kurt Cobian”. El sensacionalismo, el amarillismo, “el rock and roll cliché”, todas esas cosas desaparecen de la mano de Van Sant, que prefiere la abstracción pura como única forma para mostrar una de las muertes mas injustas de la historia del rock. Y justamente es esa distancia que muestra hacia su objeto de registro lo que le permite correrse de lo habitual y mostar el otro lado de la cuestión. Yo me preguntaba mientras la miraba si la pelicula hubiera funcionado igual de bien si en vez de Cobain hubiera sido un rockero cualquiera, es decir, me puse a pensar si, despegado de la figura del mito, la pelicula hubiera funcionado de todas formas. Yo estoy casi seguro de que si, de que definitavamente “Last Days” puede ser vista sin tener en cuenta la presencia de Cobain porque, en definitva, se trata de lo mismo que Van Sant viene contando hace años: la idea de la desconexión absoluta con el ámbito que nos rodea, la cuestión de estar muerto en vida, la búsqueda de una libertad a toda costa.

Si esta vendria a ser la última pelicula de su tan mentada “Trilogia de la Muerte”, Van Sant elegió la mejor forma de finalizarla. “Last Days” es no solo la mejor de esa trilogía, sino tambien la mas hermética, la mas extraña, la mas ambigua. Se trata de una pelicula que nunca parece empezar, que nunca arranca y que utiliza esa misma no-acción como la clave de su magia. Uno espera ver todo el tiempo a Cobain en acción, pero Van Sant sabe que eso es algo que podemos ver en cualquier lado, y decide que en su forma de ver las cosas (y la subjetividad es otra de las palabras claves en el cine de Van Sant), lo que se plantea como principal eje es el alejamiento de todo tipo de estereotipo. Le interesa mas la forma en la cual su Cobain, Blake, se desenvuelve en ese ámbito, en esa casa que tiene un protagonismo enorme, en esa frialdad que representa todo su entorno, en el bosque como pequeña salida, en el agua, en los árboles. Van Sant lleva a Blake hacia un estado practicamente salvaje, primitivo, en el que el bosque parece ser el ámbito donde mas a gusto se siente. Es que mas que perdido, Blake esta cansado, alejado de cualquier tipo de vida. Blake parece estar constantemente pesado, la gravedad misma parece lastimarlo, tirarlo al piso. La prueba mas clara de este estado es esa canción que va realizando de a poco, tocando uno a uno los instrumentos, mientras la cámara se va alejando cada vez mas, dejando que escuchemos el grito de Blake a lo lejos, apagado, pero violentamente esperanzador.

La mejor decisión que podia haber hecho Van Sant es nunca mostrar a Blake muerto; nunca enfocar el suicidio, sino mas bien la forma que nos lleva a ese camino. Y es en esa escena de la muerte donde Van Sant termina por entregar lo que es la forma mas excata de mostar a Cobain: lo humaniza, muestra el cuerpo que se va, que cambia, que finalmente se libera de todo esto, de todas las ataduras.