‘Kurt Cobain: Montage Of Heck’: A Stunning, Messy, Intimate Portrait Of The Nirvana Frontman

Rock documentarian Brett Morgen first sat down to work on a film about Kurt Cobain back in 2007, predicting the project would take no more than a year and a half. Eight years, seven exclusive interviews, dozens of journals, home videos, and over one hundred never-before-played cassettes later, Morgen had his finished project: Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, the first authorized documentary about the late Nirvana frontman who took his own life in 1994.

With its festival run coming to a close and its May 4 HBO premiere on the horizon, Montage of Heck marks the first project that’s included those close to Cobain after a slew of unauthorized accounts, including Last Days, About a Son, and the controversial Kurt & Courtney. According to Brooks Barnes of The New York Times, when approached by the acclaimed Morgen, the famed musician’s family and widow Courtney Love “felt it was time to examine this person and humanize him,” putting an end to the myth surrounding Cobain’s life and highly publicized death. Authorized documentaries are sometimes disregarded as too safe or even dubious (Anyone remember Beyoncé: Life Is But a Dream?). Yet, with the help of Love and her daughter Frances Bean Cobain (who also served as executive producer), Morgen was able to compile what Rolling Stone has called “the most intimate rock doc ever.” And boy, they aren’t kidding.

The film is named after a mix tape of diary-like recordings and guitar pluckings Cobain made pre-Nirvana. And like a mix tape, Montage of Heck is a jumbled, haphazard account of a man unspooled by his inner demons. The singer documented nearly everything in Cobain’s life — from the time he lost his virginity and his first suicide attempt to his depression and drug use. Segmented voiceovers from Cobain’s mother, sister, and bandmate, Krist Novoselic, roll over the opening credits and early home videos of a blissful, blue-eyed baby boy, playing in his front yard in Aberdeen, Washington. His mother, Wendy O’Conner (Love’s resemblance to her is uncanny), handed over everything to Morgen, including her son’s first drawings (Cobain was a fan of the Peanuts characters, Batman, and the Flintstones) as well as home videos of opening presents under the tree, birthday parties, and trick-or-treating. Cobain, who was the first grandchild on both sides, “had to be born,” according to his mother. “It was a must.”

After a seemingly average childhood, Cobain’s parents divorced when he was just nine, sending their growing, already hyper-aware son into a permanent state of worry, fear, and insecurity. “It really hurt him to be embarrassed,” first noted O’Conner, reaffirmed by his father and stepmother, later Novoselic, and finally by Love, who for once seems at peace in talking to someone about her late husband. Though it’s never explicitly said, Cobain’s anxiety and depression may have caused his chronic stomach pains, for which he self-medicated by using heroin. Novoselic admitted that the drug use grew increasingly worse after Nevermind hit number one on the Billboard chart and Cobain began dating Love.

Through Cobain’s private recordings and Morgen’s deeply personal interviews, the film paints a new portrait of a man the world thought they knew after his suicide, when his dirty laundry was aired tenfold. The most common misconception surrounding Cobain’s death (aside from the universal blaming of Love) was that he despised his success as the unofficial leader of the grunge movement — or as many referred to the singer, “the spokesperson of a generation lost.” Morgen, however, disproves these assumptions by including Cobain’s disclosed writings that blamed heroin for his ultimate undoing, reified in the home videos of Frances Bean’s infancy that feature a strung out, lesion-ridden Cobain absent-mindedly holding his daughter for her first haircut.

Between the family moments, Morgen allows diehard Nirvana fans to geek out a bit by showcasing the singer’s scribbles, album artwork blueprints, band name brainstorms, and paintings that were equal parts violent, surreal, and stunning. After the first act, it becomes quite clear that Montage of Heck is not your average rock doc, nor is Morgen your typical documentary filmmaker. A mix of Cobain’s art stash, animated reimaginings of his private recordings, never-before-seen concert and music video footage, all accompanied by unique variations of Nirvana’s discography at deafening decibels, make for one hell of a fan’s rock doc that also doubles as a comment on the “too much too soon” undoing of mega-talented personalities who can’t handle relentless public scrutiny.

Montage of Heck is by no means a perfect documentary; former band-member Dave Grohl is inexplicably absent, and the aftermath of Cobain’s death is left out by creative choice. Yet, if the only authorized documentary about the life of Kurt Cobain were neatly wrapped in a bow and summed up in a sentimental light, it would certainly feel off-key. This was a man whose mistakes marked his legend, and Montage of Heck, in all of it’s messy glory, is a documentary meant to debunk the myth.

After its theater run on April 24, you can watch Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck on HBO, HBO Go, and HBO Now beginning Monday, May 4.

Like what you see? Follow Decider on Facebook and Twitter to join the conversation, and sign up for our email newsletters to be the first to know about streaming movies and TV news!

Photos: HBO, Getty