Last Days (2005)

Although Gus Van Sant’s Last Days is very clearly based on the story of Nirvana front-man Kurt Cobain, it really could be anyone’s story.  As his record exec asks him when discussing whether he has been in touch with his daughter, “Do you say, ‘I’m sorry that I’m a rock and roll cliche’?”  And that’s truly all that Blake (played by Michael Pitt of recent Boardwalk Empire fame) is in the end.  In this artistically shot fictional mini-biopic, Van Sant takes the audience along for a heart-breakingly personal ride through the final days of a talented young rock star’s short life. (more…)

Gus Van Sant

Gus Van Sant is an American film director, screenwriter, musician, and author. He was born in Louisville, Kentucky July 24th 1952. Through his childhood he was moved around a lot by his fathers job so nothing maintained constant or stable except for his passions in painting and film making. Starting at a young age, Van Sant created many extremely low budget short films. In 1970, he went to the Rhode Island School of Design as an art major but soon changed his major to cinema. (more…)

We have arrived at Sundance! Just during the flight into Salt Lake City I managed to have found myself within a three seat radius of various filmmakers involved in two separate short film projects being screened at Sundance! The first was a group from Canada who showing the short film Captain Coulier during the short film selection V. It looks like a hysterical spoof (or parody?) on the 1950-60’s popular Sci-Fi from film and television series. Yet another group of filmmakers hailing from our norther neighbor are bringing us a political thriller which is premiering this Saturday. The film is called Ten For Grandpa and based on the short trailer looks very interesting to say the least. I’m going to work on contacting the filmmakers so watch for more information on these films when we get our hands on them!

OK, I do have to finish this review of Drugstore Cowboy though so I’m going to do the film, and Gus Van Sant (one of my favorite working directors) a huge disservice and give a very brief impression and review of this beautifully made film. (more…)