Last Days

Gus Van Sant's latest minimalist farce (not really) concerns a Kurt Cobain like fading rock star named Blake. The opening scenes show him wandering through the woods, bathing in a lake, sitting next to a fire, and then wandering back to his deteriorating mansion where a handful of friends and bandmates seem to come and go, never really making much contact with him. He already seems like one of the walking dead, wandering in a drug enduced stupor, mumbling to himself. He has chosen to isolate himself and Van Sant isolates him from the audience. His face is never really clearly seen, it is often hidden behind his golden locks, or obscured in one of the many long shots. In fact he only has a few understandable lines of dialogue in the entire film. Honestly I'm not sure what to think of the film. It's as self contained as Van Sant's Gerry and as explanationless as his Elephant (still the strongest of his unofficial trilogy). On the one hand it's both beautiful and sad, but on the other hand what are you left with but an aesthetization of a rock stars final hours rather than an exploration of it.