Nirvana fans will flock to see “Kurt Cobain About A Son” no matter what anyone says about it. The chance to hear their fallen idol talk about his life for the length of a feature film will lure them into theatres in the same way that Spice Girls fans gravitate to the 1998 and 2007 concerts, in spite of the fact that the group is accompanied by pre-recorded vocals. That said, I would rather listen to a Nirvana album than hear Kurt Cobain talk about his life.

He was a happy little fellow until his parents divorced when he was eight. Everyone else he knew also had divorced parents, so he had plenty of company during his next 19 years of misery. Like many rock stars, he found fame to be hateful and agonizing, so a massive overdose followed by a gunshot must have seemed a blessed release to him, instead of the wretched tragedy it was to his admirers.

In a movie, the pictures are everything and in this movie you’ll see footage of the Pacific Northwest and no Kurt Cobain until just before the credits. You’ll hear other people’s music selected by Al Schmack and…well…that’s his movie! Some people may weep uncontrollably at all this, others may fidget and still others (like me) will find themselves wishing they could be seeing and hearing something else, anything else, like Joseph Gordon Levitt in “Brick” or Thayer David in “Dark Shadows” or Boris Karloff in “Night key.” So that’s what I did. In my humble opinion, “Kurt Cobain About A Son” has a lot of nerve calling itself a documentary!

© 2007 - Monica Sullivan - Air Date: 11/28/07