At the cinema it's an overextended and somewhat frustrating experience, but its real achievement is that it provokes thought in the hours and days following.
Last Days (2005)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:108
Fresh:64
Rotten:44
Average Rating:6/10
Consensus: While the minimalist style is not for all viewers, those who prefer experimentalism will find Last Days hypnotic.
Theatrical Release:02-09-2005
Synopsis: Inspired by the true story of Kurt Cobain, the lead singer of the popular Seattle-based rock band Nirvana who committed suicide in 1994, director Gus Van Sant (ELEPHANT) presents this meditative... Inspired by the true story of Kurt Cobain, the lead singer of the popular Seattle-based rock band Nirvana who committed suicide in 1994, director Gus Van Sant (ELEPHANT) presents this meditative journey through the last days in the life of fictional musician Blake (Michael Pitt). In a bewildered state of drug withdrawal, Blake stumbles through deep woods groaning and mumbling quietly. His words are only occasionally audible, and even less occasionally coherent. Thus, the focus is on Blake's tortured, slow-motion movements and his tangle of chin-length blond hair, which hangs like a mask over his face. Reaching a clearing, Blake enters a dilapidated mansion where he lives with four similarly confused young rockers. A string of foggy events follows in partially chronological order. Scenes overlap, allowing for minor details to be added later. This style hints at the insignificance of time--and of everything--from Blake's perspective. Avoiding human contact, taking long walks, playing music, and hiding in the greenhouse, Blake nears his inevitable end. He digs up a parcel from the backyard, smokes a cigarette and painstakingly pours a bowl of Cocoa Krispies, changes into a black evening gown and grabs a rifle, answers the phone and says nothing when a voice asks him about an upcoming tour. Blake then descends into a bizarre, barely conscious state during which people come and go from the house. But none of it seems to register, as he is already lost. LAST DAYS finds melancholic beauty in green trees reflecting in window panes, and the sound of rippling lake water echoing the ambient noise in Blake's head; and Pitt shows chameleon expertise in his mutely charismatic depiction of the unreachable Blake, whose resemblance to Cobain is both haunting and magical. [More]
Starring: Michael Pitt, Lukas Haas, Asia Argento, Nicole Vicius
Starring: Michael Pitt, Lukas Haas, Asia Argento, Nicole Vicius, Scott Green
Director: Gus Van Sant
Director: Gus Van Sant
Screenwriter: Gus Van Sant
Producer: Dany Wolf
Studio: HBO Films
Reviews for Last Days
It would be churlish and somewhat facetious to say that by the end of the film you'll sympathise with Blake because you'll want to kill yourself too, but you do find yourself wondering if maybe that was the intention.
A beguiling work of some beauty, this is a further move into a world of hypnotic, observational cinema for Gus Van Sant.
While undeniably beautiful, it carries little more than the obvious voyeuristic appeal.
Boring, self-indulgent and punctuated by Van Sant's trademark homosexual kissing scene, "Last Days" will make you wish that this were Van Sant's last movie.
"Posljednji dani" bi vrlo lako mogli dovr%u0161iti ono %u0161to je prije vi%u0161e od jednog desetlje%u0107a zapo%u010Deo hitac iz sa%u010Dmarice.
The film will likely divide viewers, striking many as a self-indulgent wallow, others as a rewarding envelope-pusher. In fact, it combines elements of both.
Unpleasant but hypnotic lyrical meditation on death that was inspired by the suicide in 1994 of grunge rocker Kurt Cobain.
Don't send out the condolences just yet. The movie isn't about the director's death--if anything, it proves that Van Sant is very much alive.
Cinematographer Harris Savides manages to make these ... disintegrating environments and souls darkly beautiful. [But] Blake is a messiah ... dying for no one but himself.
Ne réinventant pas l’approche de sa série, Gus Van Sant nous offre plutôt avec Last Days une œuvre qui effectue brillamment la synthèse des deux opus précédents.
Latest News for Last Days
August 26, 2007:
RT-UK's What to Watch at the Edinburgh Film Festival
Rotten Tomatoes UK heads up north to take in the sights and sounds of the Edinburgh Film Festival. And as the celebration of cinema draws to a close we present what's hot and... More...
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