Watch ‘Kurt Cobain: Montage Of Heck’ Tonight On HBO Go And HBO NOW

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, premiering tonight at 9 PM on HBO, HBO Go, and HBO NOW.

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 suicide. 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.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IBWbpJdRMQ]

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. Through Cobain’s private recordings and Morgen’s deeply personal interviews with Love, former bandmate Krist Novoselic, and the singer’s family, the film paints a new portrait of a man the world thought they knew as an unofficial spokesperson of a generation.

Between the family moments, however, 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. As a man whose imperfections marked his legend: Montage of Heck, in all of it’s messy glory, is a documentary meant to debunk the myth of the notorious Kurt Cobain.

READ THE FULL REVIEW: Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck: A Stunning, Messy, Intimate Portrait of the Nirvava Frontman

 

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Photos: HBO, Getty