Kurt Cobain Montage Of Heck was directed by Brett Morgen and released by HBO in 2015 but is brand new to Netflix so if you have never had the opportunity to watch it then I can't stress enough that you are truly missing out. I like Nirvana as much as the next person and like millions of others I too owned a copy of Nevermind but this documentary is much much more than just a quick trip down memory lane of the greatest hits of one of the world's biggest bands. It is a thought provoking, emotional and brutally honest portrayal of a tortured artist and the demons that plagued him through most of his life.
It is the first documentary about Kurt Cobain to be made with the cooperation of his family and features interviews with his mother, father, step-mother, ex-girlfriend, bandmate Krist Novoselic and his widow Courtney Love. With video footage from home movies from when he was a young boy, Cobain's life is charted almost year by year as the once hyperactive toddler morphed into a very angst ridden and troubled teen who was ultimately shipped form pillar to post as few could tolerate his behaviour. Accompanying the home movies are audio tapes from Cobain himself overlaid with some superb animation that really captures the sense of despair the teenager was feeling. With excerpts from diaries and notes we get to see how Nirvana was formed, the dedication to their craft and ultimately the start of their real success.
Of course, as we now all know, that fame and success came with a very heavy price and at times this is a very difficult documentary to watch because we already know the tragic outcome. Footage supplied by Love shows a stripped back and often high-on-heroine Cobain and his downward spiral is so evident that it feels like voyeurism to watch such a talented human being in such a vulnerable state. But for all the sadness, and there's a lot of it, Cobain comes out of this as a truly lovely person. He was undoubtedly immensely talented but more than that he loved his family, he loved his music, he loved his fans. He was a tortured soul who couldn't overcome his demons and the world became a little bit duller when he left it.
