Kurt Cobain About a Son

Nirvana's singer is one person we're glad to hear talk only about himself

By Matt Pais

Critic's Rating:

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Between Dec. '92 and March '93, journalist Michael Azerrad interviewed Kurt Cobain at length for a book on Nirvana. More than 25 hours of previously unheard footage from those interviews provide the backdrop for this documentary, which allows the off-screen Cobain--who committed suicide in 1994--to discuss his life in his words, from his depression at age 9 to his abusive father to his musical beginnings to using heroin as "pain medication" for stomach ailments. Director AJ Schnack provides recent images from Cobain's many Washington state residences to complement the artist's narration.

Big question: Can this highly atmospheric film achieve the poetry of Gus Van Sant's sort-of look at the end of Cobain's life, "Last Days," or is it as alternately interesting and muddled as Todd Haynes' Bob Dylan experiment, "I'm Not There"?

Catch it: The spellbinding "About a Son" is a real puzzler--a confessional movie that taps into the unusual personal journey of going from the gutter to the magazine covers, and becoming a voice of a bruised generation of which you'd prefer not to be a part. The film invites you to experience Cobain's life as he saw it and learn that the question, "How did a messed-up musician from Aberdeen, Wash., mean so much to disenfranchised youth?" answers itself.

Skip it: If you prefer your music biopics simple and can't handle a fascinating plunge into one man's thicket of contradictions. "About a Son" captures Cobain's taste for both Black Sabbath and the Beatles; his openness but hesitation to reveal everything; his reluctance to belong to any group other than one of people who don't belong; and his under-appreciated sense of humor and perpetual state of being "pissed off about everything in general."

Bottom line: The movie's nothing but Cobain talking over assorted imagery for 95 minutes, but Schnack's profound presentation makes you wonder if the enigmatic singer was better represented by his success or his ultimate surrender. And if even a revealing portrait like "About a Son" can make him seem any less misunderstood.

Bonus: Among Cobain's many choice anecdotes, our favorites: being forced to smoke the oregano he swapped in for weed he stole; hating dogs and loving cats and turtles because of their "'F--- you' attitude"; and believing that his early notion that punk music was merely "three-chord noise and screaming" later proved to be true.

mpais@tribune.com