Montage of Heck is a haunting look at Kurt Cobain’s life

Director Brett Morgen’s Montage of Heck is a documentary about the life of Kurt Cobain, and not about Nirvana. That might seem counter-intuitive, but Morgen’s film is singularly interested in Cobain as a person, and not necessarily interested in his legacy as a “spokesperson of a generation.”

Named after a sound collage tape that Cobain made back in 1988, Morgen’s film similarly utilizes an array of styles to get inside Cobain’s brain, including early childhood family videos, animation sequences based on Cobain’s art, extracts from his journals, rare audio interviews, as well as Cobain and Courtney Love’s own home videos.

Morgen was granted extraordinary access for the film, including the keys a storage locker that even Love claimed to not know the entire contents of. Morgen was also able to assemble Kurt’s family, including both of his parents and his sister, all of whom have rarely spoken on camera about Kurt. It’s invaluable to have his family on-screen, even though Cobain’s own recollections of his difficult home upbringing make it hard to know how much stock to put into what his family has to say, especially given the 20 years of hindsight since his death.

Unlike a traditional music documentary, Montage of Heck does not recount the typical milestones of Nirvana’s career path, unless they serve to highlight something specific about Kurt’s life or personality. For example, there is no special emphasis on the writing or recording of Nevermind, one of the most landmark albums of all time; the film only focuses on the chaos and uncertainty that sudden success brought forward for Cobain.

While there could be an argument that Cobain might have taken his own life regardless of his level of fame (his family’s documented disposition towards mental illness, and even suicide, is never mentioned in the film), Morgen treats the meteoric rise of Nirvana as a cause for alarm, and not a celebration of the counter-culture taking over the mainstream. In one of the film’s most haunting sequences, the raucous “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video is overlaid with the Scala & Kolacny Brothers’ choir version of the song, creating an almost funeral-like ode to Cobain’s last pre-fame moment.

The Cobain and Love home movies reveal the couple living in near-squalor during the height of Nirvana’s fame, which demonstrates just how pre-occupied they must have been with other pursuits at the time. Their drug use is openly discussed in their videos, and the film features some especially eerie footage of the couple looking stoned out of their minds, often with an infant Frances Cobain in their arms. Some of the footage borders on a near playful sex-tape vibe, with the naked couple jumping around their home together, looking very much the picture of a young, happy (and stoned) pair.

One vital facet of Cobain’s personality that the film highlights is his wicked sense of humour, which has often been overshadowed by his image as a despondent rock star. For proof, check out the below clip of Cobain doing his best Chris Cornell impression.

Through his journal entires and home videos, Cobain comes across as a witty and sarcastic guy, always ready with a straight-faced one-liner. If anything, the footage de-mystifies the surly image most have of Cobain, revealing him to be a hyper-sensitive soul, with very human flaws.

Following its mandate to focus only on Cobain’s life, Montage of Heck ends immediately following Kurt’s suicide in 1994, with a simple on-screen caption announcing his death. There is no examination of his legacy, nor of the effect his early death had on his friends and family. That will have to be for the next film.

Montage of Heck airs on HBO on May 4th.