Review of Kurt Cobain: About a Son (2007) by Thomas G — 23 May 2012

I know quite a few friends who love the band Nirvana as much as I do. And this documentary is not very much about Nirvana as it is of Kurt Cobain himself. This was composed of different interviews of Kurt Cobain, which are one of only a few interviews in which he displayed his personal life. Along with many pieces of footage of the city of Seattle (the home of Grunge music).

What I believe really works about this film is that it is a great research piece. If you are familiar with Kurt Cobain and his music, but are looking to go deeper, you should probably start with this film. What also works is the use of the interviews to actively display Kurt's personal life. And it is quite hard to tell if they had cut out any pieces of the interview, since there is so much. Not only that, but it is shown in great detail. With these two pieces of praise in mind, I must also demonstrate the flaws of such a film. One of which was some of the footage that was used in the film. While there is a lot of footage that does indeed work, you still notice that at the same time, the whole film is easy to just listen to, rather than watch. That is not saying that the film itself is bad, it is stating that it could have been released in a different format. Maybe even as a CD. The footage is still nice-looking. While I have heard some complaints that others should have been interviewed, I could simply state that there are so many other Nirvana films with interviews of anyone but Kurt Cobain. And this seems very much like a redemption of that.

If you are a die-hard fan of Nirvana, you should check this out. If you are doing some sort of research project, this could work for you. Just... you know, don't bother to visually watch it you don't want or have to.