My first Van Sant. Contrary to how I thought I'd feel, I found his choice of incredibly long, un-moving shots to be almost refreshing against the backdrop of most other recent cinema. The best aspect of the film, to me, was Van Sant's work with subliminal audio manipulation, something I had only ever seen Paul Thomas Anderson do. At random points throughout the film, we hear a seemingly random collage of audio clips that, in some strange way, helps us to understand our main character's feelings. I loved this in Anderson's films and I loved it here too.
Van Sant's film clearly benefits from the lure and tragic mystery surrounding Cobain's death, even to someone like me who knows little about it. Rarely do I find myself so enamored in every nuance of a character's movements and speech patterns as I did here. This attests to Michael Pitt's performance, which I've been told is spot-on with Kurt. There was just a beautiful sense of complacency and tragedy surrounding this whole thing that I found fascinating.
