''Last Days'' is a 2005 American
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...
written, directed, produced and edited by
Gus Van Sant
Gus Green Van Sant Jr. (born July 24, 1952) is an American filmmaker, photographer, painter, and musician. He has earned acclaim as an independent film, independent auteur. His films typically deal with themes of marginalized subcultures.
His ...
. It is a fictionalized account of the last days of a musician, loosely based on
Kurt Cobain
Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20, 1967 – ) was an American musician. He was the lead vocalist, guitarist, primary songwriter, and a founding member of the grunge band Nirvana (band), Nirvana. Through his angsty songwriting and anti-establis ...
. It was released to theaters in the United States on July 22, 2005 and was produced by
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...
. The film stars
Michael Pitt
Michael Carmen Pitt (born April 10, 1981) is an American actor, model, and musician.
In film, he has appeared in ''Hedwig and the Angry Inch (film), Hedwig and the Angry Inch'' (2001), ''Bully (2001 film), Bully'' (2001), ''Murder by Numbers'' ...
as the character Blake, based on Cobain.
Lukas Haas
Lukas Daniel Haas (born April 16, 1976) is an American actor and musician. His acting career has spanned four decades, during which he has appeared in more than 50 feature films and a number of television shows and stage productions. His notable ...
,
Asia Argento
Asia Argento (; born Aria Maria Vittoria Rossa Argento; 20 September 1975) is an Italian actress and filmmaker. The daughter of filmmaker Dario Argento, she has had roles in several of her father's features and achieved mainstream success with ...
, Scott Patrick Green and Thadeus A. Thomas also star in the film. This is the first film from
Picturehouse, a joint venture between
Time Warner
Warner Media, LLC ( doing business as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owned by AT&T. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City.
It was established as Time Warne ...
's
New Line Cinema
New Line Productions, Inc., Trade name, doing business as New Line Cinema, is an American film production, film and television production company that is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, a division of the Major film studios, ...
and
HBO Films
HBO Films (formerly called HBO Premiere Films and HBO Pictures) is an American production and distribution company, a division of the cable television network HBO that produces feature films and miniseries. The division produces fiction and non-f ...
subsidiaries to release
art house,
independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States
* Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...
,
foreign
Foreign may refer to:
Government
* Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries
* Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries
** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government
** Foreign office and foreign minister
* United S ...
, and
documentary film
A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...
s. The film polarized critics.
Plot
A young musician named Blake sneaks out of a rehab clinic and walks home through a forest, also swimming through a lake then lighting a fire for the night. The next day, he gets home and changes his clothes. He walks around in the house with a shotgun, pointing it at his sleeping roommates Scott, Luke, Asia, and Nicole. He is greeted by Yellow Pages representative Thadeus A. Thomas who talks to him about placing an ad in the upcoming book. He receives a phone call from his record company telling him that he and his band have to do another tour and that it is important they make the booked dates, but Blake hangs up. He goes upstairs and falls asleep on the floor in one of the rooms. Asia awakes and finds him asleep as two
LDS missionaries arrive at the door. Scott and Luke answer the door and the two missionaries talk to them about their church and its teachings. Blake changes into different clothes and leaves the house for the shed outside as the missionaries leave.
Scott, Luke, Asia, and Nicole leave and Blake goes back into the house. His friend Donovan and a private detective come to the house and Blake leaves as they look around the house for him. He waits for them to leave before he enters the house again. He messes with the guitars and drums putting them on loop with his vocals. He stops when his record executive (
Kim Gordon
Kim Althea Gordon (born April 28, 1953) is an American musician, singer and songwriter best known as the bassist, guitarist, and vocalist of alternative rock band Sonic Youth. Born in Rochester, New York, she was raised in Los Angeles, Califor ...
) comes over and tries to have him leave with her but Blake refuses. Blake goes to a rock club that night where a friend of his comes up to him and tells him about how he went to a
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in Palo Alto, California, in 1965. Known for their eclectic style that fused elements of rock, blues, jazz, Folk music, folk, country music, country, bluegrass music, bluegrass, roc ...
concert. Blake leaves before his friend can finish telling the story. Blake goes back home where Scott takes some of his money and Luke asks for help from Blake on a song.
Scott tells Luke that Donovan had a private detective with him and that they should leave. After Scott and Luke have sex upstairs, Blake plays acoustic one last time before walking out to the shed where he sits quietly, watching his roommates leave. They spend the night at their friend's house, and awake the next morning to see the news announcing that Blake died by suicide and an electrician found his body. Scott, Luke, and Nicole get in a car and leave, driving down a highway while Luke plays the guitar in the back seat.
Cast
Relation to other Van Sant films
''Last Days'' is the third and final installment in what Van Sant has frequently called his "
Death Trilogy", which began with ''
Gerry
Gerry is both a surname and a masculine or feminine given name. As a given name, it is often a short form (hypocorism) of Gerard, Gerald or Geraldine. Notable people with the name include:
Surname
*Elbridge Gerry (1744–1814), fifth US vice pres ...
'' (2002) and continued with ''
Elephant
Elephants are the largest living land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant ('' Loxodonta africana''), the African forest elephant (''L. cyclotis''), and the Asian elephant ('' Elephas maximus ...
'' (2003). The dialogue and narration in all three films are minimal, and scenes do not proceed linearly. As in ''Elephant'', scenes are revisited from new angles, starting at differing points in time, without a signal to viewers that the clock has been turned back and a previous scene is being revisited. In a later film, ''
Paranoid Park'' (2007), Van Sant uses the same technique. Also as in the other films, many of the actors' character names are the same as their actual first names.
Production
Background
Van Sant has stated he had contemplated the project for nearly a decade. At one time, he wanted to do a
biographical film
A biographical film or biopic () is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person or group of people. Such films show the life of a historical person and the central character's real name is used. They differ from Docudrama, docudrama films ...
about Cobain but decided against the idea out of concern over the potential of a lawsuit by Cobain's widow,
Courtney Love
Courtney Michelle Love (née Harrison; born July 9, 1964) is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, and actress. A figure in the alternative and grunge scenes of the 1990s, Love has had a career spanning four decades. She rose to promi ...
. Van Sant was unsure how Cobain's fans and family would react to ''Last Days''; he spoke to Love several times over the years about his project and recently expressed his concern that it might be painful for her to see the film. Actress
Asia Argento
Asia Argento (; born Aria Maria Vittoria Rossa Argento; 20 September 1975) is an Italian actress and filmmaker. The daughter of filmmaker Dario Argento, she has had roles in several of her father's features and achieved mainstream success with ...
stated, "It's been written that I play Courtney Love, and it's not true. I'm so upset. I don't know why people say that. I feel very sorry for her. She's been demonized and I feel sorry for anybody that's lost like that. But no, I play a character that's very
dorky."
Music
''Last Days'' features two original compositions by Michael Pitt: an acoustic song entitled "Death to Birth" and an electric jam called "That Day". Lukas Haas composed another piece, "Untitled".
Rodrigo Lopresti composed "Seen as None" and "Pointless Ride". The character Scott listens to "
Venus in Furs
''Venus in Furs'' () is a novella by the Austrian author Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, and the best known of his works. The novel was to be part of an epic series that Sacher-Masoch envisioned called '' Legacy of Cain'' (). ''Venus in Furs'' was ...
" by
The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground were an American Rock music, rock band formed in New York City in 1964. Its classic lineup consisted of singer and guitarist Lou Reed, Welsh multi-instrumentalist John Cale, guitarist Sterling Morrison, and percussionis ...
. Blake, in one scene, watches the music video for "
On Bended Knee
"On Bended Knee" is a song by American R&B group Boyz II Men for the Motown label. It was written and produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, and released in November 1994 by Motown as the second single from the group's second album, '' II'' (19 ...
" by
Boyz II Men
Boyz II Men ( ) is an American vocal harmony group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, best known for emotional ballads and a cappella harmonies. Formed in 1985, they have been a trio composed of baritone Nathan Morris, tenor Wanya Morris, Wanyá Mo ...
on television. "Venus in Furs" contains the lyric "...on bended knee". A soundscape piece called "Doors of Perception" ("Türen der Wahrnehmung") was composed by
Hildegard Westerkamp.
Filming
The film was shot in the
Hudson Valley
The Hudson Valley or Hudson River Valley comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. The region stretches from the Capital District (New York), Capital District includi ...
region of
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
New York may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* ...
, which, due in part to cinematographer
Harris Savides' specialized treatment of the film stock, suggests the
Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest (PNW; ) is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common ...
, where Van Sant is from.
Reception
On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
it has an approval rating of 58% based on reviews from 119 critics, with an average rating of 6.1/10. The site's consensus says, "While the minimalist style is not for all viewers, those who prefer experimentalism will find ''Last Days'' hypnotic." On
Metacritic
Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
it has a weighted average score of 67 out of 100 based on reviews from 36 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.
Leslie Felperin of ''Variety'' wrote: "Result is dead-on depiction of the hedonistic rock lifestyle, punctuated by sequences of haunting beauty but also quasi-religious imagery that borders on tacky."
Awards
The film was entered in the
2005 Cannes Film Festival
The 58th Cannes Film Festival took place from 11 May and ran until 22 May 2005. Serbian filmmaker Emir Kusturica served as jury president for the main competition. Cécile de France hosted the opening and closing ceremonies.
Belgian filmmakers D ...
where it won the Technical Grand Prize.
It was nominated for an
Independent Spirit Award for Best Cinematography
The Independent Spirit Award for Best Cinematography is one of the annual awards given out by Film Independent, a non-profit organization dedicated to independent film and independent filmmakers. It was first given in 1985, with Japanese cinemato ...
, but failed to win any awards at the
festival
A festival is an event celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, Melā, mela, or Muslim holidays, eid. A ...
.
Legacy
The film was adapted into an
opera
Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...
of the same name by British composer
Oliver Leith and visual artist Matt Copson, which premiered in 2022 at the Linbury Theatre as a coproduction of
Guildhall School of Music and Drama
The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is a music school, music and drama school located in the City of London, England. Established in 1880, the school offers undergraduate and postgraduate training in all aspects of classical music and jazz al ...
and the
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House (ROH) is a theatre in Covent Garden, central London. The building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. The ROH is the main home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orch ...
, featuring French actress
Agathe Rousselle in the role of Blake.
Director
Matt Reeves has said that this movie was an influence on the character of
Bruce Wayne
Batman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. Batman was created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on March 30, 1939. In t ...
in ''
The Batman'' (2022).
See also
*
Books and films inspired by Kurt Cobain
References
External links
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Last Days
2005 films
American independent films
American musical drama films
2000s English-language films
Films about Kurt Cobain
Films about depression
Films about suicide
Films directed by Gus Van Sant
Films set in Washington (state)
Films shot in New York (state)
Films shot in Oregon
American nonlinear narrative films
Picturehouse films
Films with screenplays by Gus Van Sant
Cultural depictions of Kurt Cobain
2000s musical drama films
2005 drama films
2005 independent films
2000s American films
English-language independent films
English-language musical drama films
2005 musical films