On the Screen Again
Movie Reviews:

Kurt & Courtney

Stars: Kurt Cobain, Courtney Love
Director: Nick Broomfield
Genre: Documentary, Music
Runtime: 95 minutes

Having just seen the ultra-controversial Nick Broomfield documentary Kurt & Courtney, I should declare my own personal biases and opinions before actually saying anything about said documentary.

Here they are:

• Nevermind is a great album, but I have to skip over "Teen Spirit," "Come As You Are" and the hidden track. Other than that, "Molly's Lips" and a bootleg of Unplugged are the only other Nirvana things which I couldn't live without.
• A friend of mine tricked me into admitting I thought Live Through This sounded "awesome" when he made me listen to it without knowing who it was by beforehand, and he skipped over the "hits" while playing the record.
• I think Celebrity Skin sounds like Toronto's Get It On Credit and if the record was released by Holly Woods instead of Courtney Love, it would sell 5,000 copies and be considered a noble, though failed comeback attempt.
• The death of Kurt Cobain did not have a profound effect on me.
• When told Courtney Love would not be doing press to support the new record (other band members, however would be), I predicted that before the new year, Hole's record company would panic and rush a second round of press meet-and-greets to drum up publicity, probably with Courtney included. Coincidentally, a press conference featuring Hole's Melissa Auf der Maur and Eric Erlandson has been announced for November 3 in Toronto (Courtney Love will not be participating).
• Courtney Love is more vigorous in controlling her image than Madonna, Alanis and Prince put together.
• Courtney Love is the undisputed Queen of Libel Chill.
• I'm confident I could probably take Courtney Love one-on-one. Her bouncers are a different story however...
• The dramatist in me wants to believe Courtney Love had a hand in Kurt Cobain's death, but there's just too many questions to make me feel as confident as I would be if I was stating an opinion about, say, O.J. Simpson.
• Kurt Cobain would be dead by 1998 no matter whether anybody tried to kill him or not.

On to the film...

First off, Kurt & Courtney is a blatant assassination of Courtney Love's character. The people who Broomfield interviews for the film (Love's father Hank Harrison, underground musician El Duce, private investigator Tom Grant, and various second-tier acquaintances of both Love and Cobain) have little good to say about her, even if all they say is that they're too scared of Courtney Love to actually say anything about her.

Some random quotes:

• "She's a harpy."
• "I don't care if you (Courtney Love) are Jesus and your lawyers are the twelve disciples."
• "I think Courtney used Kurt from the beginning."
• "There was just way too much will (as in legal) talk... Courtney talking about his will."

So, you get the idea of where Broomfield is heading for most of the documentary.

While Broomfield does a good job eliciting damning quotes from the rather motley collection of Love-haters he has assembled, it's the few contributions Love herself makes to the documentary which do the most to tarnish her image. Broomfield does this by setting up Love using taped recordings of her violently threatening journalists who've dared to cross her path (Incidentally, our tape recorders are primed and we're hoping, really hoping Miss World will acknowledge us).

After playing for us Love's collection of absolutely venomous threats, Broomfield then tracks down Love at an ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) meeting — the only time he comes face-to-face with her — where she is a guest speaker. The delicious irony of Love speaking at said engagement (a forum which supports open sharing of opinion and the upholding of freedom of speech laws) isn't lost upon Broomfield. Broomfield engages in a quick, weak q & a with Love at the event, then later jumps onstage at the dinner looking to further provoke Love in front of the hundreds of ACLU-types.

He's quickly kicked out, proving free speech in America is still alive and well.

This ACLU scenario probably does the most to define the phenomenon which is Kurt & Courtney — the documentary. Although "Who killed Kurt?" is Generation X's Kennedy assassination mystery, the specter of Love's pack of litigious dogs and sinister image grafters looming over anything remotely related to Hole/Nirvana/Kurt/Seattle/or herself is what fuels the fire of said documentary. Throughout the film, Broomfield regularly voice-overs segments with things like, "We want to play what X person is saying, but British libel law won't permit us," "We want to play X Nirvana song but Courtney Love won't let us," etc. Although Love won't talk about the now-fabled accusations she killed Kurt, it's obvious if you cross her path you will get the smack-down.

Broomfield's smack-down comes in the form of a telephone call where he's informed one of his financial backers (MTV) have pulled their money out of the project, thereby jeopardizing it. The MTV rationale? Some blithering about having to maintain a relationship with the Hole/Nirvana camps, etc.

And that, I suspect, is what wears down Broomfield to the point where at the end of the film he declares he doesn't believe Courtney had any part in the death of Kurt Cobain — despite setting up Love with a character assassination so effective most people will likely come to a conclusion contrary to that of Broomfield's.

Consequently, having gone through all that, let's check the bias/opinion meter now:

• Every music fan under 35 must see Kurt & Courtney.
• If Courtney Love didn't destroy Kurt Cobain's body, she did one helluva number destroying his spirit.
• MTV are weasels.
• Hank Harrison is an attention-seeking weasel.
• There doesn't seem to be one person in any way related to Kurt or Courtney who seems remotely trustworthy. At all.
• There are hundreds — and probably — thousands of weasels capitalizing on the death of Kurt Cobain, including Courtney Love.
• Courtney Love would make Holden Caulfield roll over in his ice cream-covered grave.
• Even if he wasn't killed, Kurt Cobain would be dead by 1998.
• From what I've been shown, Courtney Love's ambition knows no bounds.